Asia

Iran: Suspicious minds
One thing every thinking person should have learnt from the Iraq intelligence debacle was to treat claims of state support for external armed groups with caution (see Wikipedia…
North Korea's third N test: What does it mean?
John Carlson is a Visiting Fellow at the Lowy Institute and the former Director-General of the Australian Safeguards and Non-proliferation Office. From seismic analysis, it…
China-DPRK: Different this time?
The regime in Pyongyang has tested a third nuclear device and the depressing diplomatic ritual has begun again. The liturgy is familiar: the threat, the ineffective warnings, the…
'Mutual denial' may not change very much
Stephan Fruehling is a Senior Lecturer in the Strategic and Defence Studies Program, ANU. Sam Roggeveen's post on whether 'mutual denial' can work raises an important point about…
Barry Wain, 17 July 1944 — 5 February 2013
John Funston is a Visiting Fellow at the College of Asia & the Pacific, ANU. Michael Montesano is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore…
US-China: Can mutual denial work?
Thanks to all the blogs and news sites that picked up on what I described as the 'bracing' commentary by a senior US naval intelligence officer about China's naval capabilities…
Friday funny: Punxatawny in the Pacific
It's the twentieth anniversary of one of the most beloved and critically acclaimed films of my lifetime, Groundhog Day. And given Malcolm Cook's post today about the sudden cold…
India linkage: Indo-Pacific, Kumbh Mela, middle class, freedom of speech and more
Danielle Rajendram is a Research Associate in the Lowy Institute's International Security Program whose work focuses on India and China-India relations. Is freedom of speech…
Japan-China: A winter's tale
During the Koizumi prime ministership, China depicted Japan-China relations as 'politics cold, economy hot', with Japanese FDI inflows into China a key warming agent. Liberal…
The economics of Japan-China tension
One line of Raoul Heinrichs' analysis of the increasing maritime tension and military competition in Northeast Asia that jumped out at me was his claim about the effects of…