The Asia Program in Washington studies disruptive security, governance, and technological risks that threaten peace, growth, and opportunity in the Asia-Pacific region, including a focus on China, Japan, and the Korean peninsula.
Evan A. Feigenbaum
Vice President for Studies, Acting Director, Carnegie China
Darshana M. Baruah
Nonresident Scholar, South Asia Program
Darcie Draudt-Véjares
Fellow, Asia Program
François Godement
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Asia Program
Robert Greene
Nonresident Scholar, Asia Program and Technology and International Affairs Program
Sheena Chestnut Greitens
Nonresident Scholar, Asia Program
Charles Hooper
Nonresident Scholar, Asia Program
Yukon Huang
Senior Fellow, Asia Program
Isaac B. Kardon
Senior Fellow, Asia Program
Kenji Kushida
Senior Fellow, Asia Program
Sana Jaffrey
Nonresident Scholar, Asia Program
Oriana Skylar Mastro
Nonresident Scholar, Asia Program
Chung Min Lee
Senior Fellow, Asia Program
Evan S. Medeiros
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Asia Program
Jennifer B. Murtazashvili
Nonresident Scholar, Asia Program
Michael R. Nelson
Senior Fellow, Asia Program
Trinh Nguyen
Nonresident Scholar, Asia Program
Elina Noor
Senior Fellow, Asia Program
Douglas H. Paal
Distinguished Fellow, Asia Program
George Perkovich
Japan Chair for a World Without Nuclear Weapons, Vice President for Studies
Michael Pettis
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Carnegie China
Matt Sheehan
Fellow, Asia Program
Ashley J. Tellis
Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs
Temur Umarov
Fellow, Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center
Milan Vaishnav
Director and Senior Fellow, South Asia Program
Gita Wirjawan
Nonresident Scholar, Asia Program
For three decades, Asia was the world’s most successful region, combining rapid growth with strong economic fundamentals to lift hundreds of millions out of poverty. By 2012, the dominant popular storyline about Asia was of a dynamic and increasingly integrated region, with 53 percent of its trade conducted within Asia itself and a $19 trillion regional economy that was an engine of global growth.
But the last several years have been sobering. Three significant cracks have emerged in this optimistic Asian story—and mitigating these three risks lies at the core of Carnegie’s Asia Program.
For three decades, Asia was the world’s most successful region, combining rapid growth with strong economic fundamentals to lift hundreds of millions out of poverty. By 2012, the dominant popular storyline about Asia was of a dynamic and increasingly integrated region, with 53 percent of its trade conducted within Asia itself and a $19 trillion regional economy that was an engine of global growth.
But the last several years have been sobering. Three significant cracks have emerged in this optimistic Asian story—and mitigating these three risks lies at the core of Carnegie’s Asia Program.
Mitigating disruptive security risks from competition among the big powers.
Mitigating disruptive security risks from competition among the big powers.
Controlling disruptive technological risks arising from new innovations, regulatory diversity, or competing standards.
Controlling disruptive technological risks arising from new innovations, regulatory diversity, or competing standards.
Overcoming disruptive governance risks from weak institutions, uneven state capacity, or insufficiently inclusive growth.
Overcoming disruptive governance risks from weak institutions, uneven state capacity, or insufficiently inclusive growth.
While Carnegie’s Asia-related programs range widely across diverse topics and disparate East and South Asian geographies, nearly every Asia-related project or initiative across our global platform addresses one or another of these three cracks and their effects and prescribes solutions. Simply put, while our Asia programs are diverse, taken together they comprise a coherent effort to address these three disruptive risks in Asia.
While Carnegie’s Asia-related programs range widely across diverse topics and disparate East and South Asian geographies, nearly every Asia-related project or initiative across our global platform addresses one or another of these three cracks and their effects and prescribes solutions. Simply put, while our Asia programs are diverse, taken together they comprise a coherent effort to address these three disruptive risks in Asia.
We explore China’s power and growing capacity for action, its strategies and tactics around the world, and the challenges it faces at home.
We explore China’s power and growing capacity for action, its strategies and tactics around the world, and the challenges it faces at home.
Our work explores Japanese ideas and innovations that will transform technology, industry, the future of work, and defense and security.
Our work explores Japanese ideas and innovations that will transform technology, industry, the future of work, and defense and security.
We offer incisive analysis and recommendations on key aspects of policy around the Korean Peninsula—and Korea’s growing role as a tech player and standard setter.
We offer incisive analysis and recommendations on key aspects of policy around the Korean Peninsula—and Korea’s growing role as a tech player and standard setter.
Our work explores issues and challenges facing one of Asia's largest economies, as well as critical issues in cross-Strait relations.
Our work explores issues and challenges facing one of Asia's largest economies, as well as critical issues in cross-Strait relations.
We study disruptive risks: weak institutions, uneven state capacity, challenges to growth, regulatory diversity, and trade conflict.
We study disruptive risks: weak institutions, uneven state capacity, challenges to growth, regulatory diversity, and trade conflict.
We offer a textured understanding of Southeast Asian domestic and regional dynamics, avoiding analysis that treats the region as a proxy for the competition of outside powers.
We offer a textured understanding of Southeast Asian domestic and regional dynamics, avoiding analysis that treats the region as a proxy for the competition of outside powers.
Carnegie Asia has also developed several innovative, distinctively branded deep-dive projects.
Carnegie Asia has also developed several innovative, distinctively branded deep-dive projects.
Carnegie has launched an innovative body of research on Chinese engagement in seven regions of the world—Africa, Central Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, the Pacific, South Asia, and Southeast Asia—exploring the adaptive Chinese strategies that work within local realities and are mostly ignored by Western policymakers.
Carnegie has launched an innovative body of research on Chinese engagement in seven regions of the world—Africa, Central Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, the Pacific, South Asia, and Southeast Asia—exploring the adaptive Chinese strategies that work within local realities and are mostly ignored by Western policymakers.
The Carnegie Asia Program’s Indian Ocean Initiative serves as as a hub for research and scholarship related to the Indian Ocean and its island states and territories.
The Carnegie Asia Program’s Indian Ocean Initiative serves as as a hub for research and scholarship related to the Indian Ocean and its island states and territories.
The Carnegie Asia Program’s “Alliance Future” project aims to ensure that Canberra and Washington are working to operationalize and integrate their alliance in new ways.
The Carnegie Asia Program’s “Alliance Future” project aims to ensure that Canberra and Washington are working to operationalize and integrate their alliance in new ways.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House and his commitment to his policy agenda will challenge U.S. relations with Southeast Asia. This compilation looks to understand how the region views its relationship with the United States and to examine whether the region’s goals and interests can be aligned with those of a new administration.
A conversation about China’s switch from emulation to entrepreneurship; relations with China under Trump; and why war over Taiwan is unlikely in the next four years.
Oil-dependent economies in the Gulf are looking to Chinese tech firms to drive technological progress in the region. Contrary to the narrative that Beijing is imposing its “digital model” on Gulf states, Chinese firms have adapted their strategies to adhere to the local political and regulatory realities in Gulf nations.
Southeast Asia’s developers have sought to democratize AI by building language models that better represent the region’s languages, worldviews, and values. Yet, language is deeply political in a region as multiculturally diverse and complex as Southeast Asia. Can localized large language models truly preserve and project the region’s nuances?
Why beefing up is bad strategy toward China.
Longstanding assumptions and presumptions about American power, purpose, policy, and strategy in the world’s most economically dynamic region are about to go out the window. Nearly every major American relationship in Asia is heading for rockier shoals.
During Trump’s first term, Beijing scrambled to react. It is determined not to repeat that.
A conversation about the incoming Trump administration and its ties with India’s Modi government, as a partner to balance China’s power.
A discussion of potential opportunities for arbitrage on tariff rates implemented by the new Trump administration.
By treating undersea cables as critical infrastructure, Southeast Asian stakeholders can better manage geopolitical, environmental, and more conventional risks threatening cable resilience.
