Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Once at the vanguard of democratization in the developing world, South and East Asia now find their democracies in peril. Only months after the Thai military made its move last summer, the armed forces in Bangladesh and Fiji also grabbed power. Meanwhile, rulers in Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Pakistan and the Philippines have taken steps to further stymie democratic reform.
What we need is both vision - a scenario for a world free of nuclear weapons. And action - progressive steps to reduce warhead numbers and to limit the role of nuclear weapons in security policy. These two strands are separate but they are mutually reinforcing. Both are necessary, both at the moment too weak.
Over the last five years, China has laid the groundwork to become an international power. It has done so not only with high-level diplomacy but also through the tools of soft power: aid, investment, culture and skilled diplomacy. This charm offensive has proved remarkably successful. But as some countries try to model China's success, it may backfire.
Carnegie launched a new policy brief on China’s ASAT by Senior Associate Ashley J. Tellis. Jessica T. Mathews, Carnegie president, introduced the panel, which featured Dr. Tellis as the presenter, Dr. Michael D. Swaine, Senior Associate in Carnegie’s China program, and Dr. Peter Hays, Senior Policy Analyst with the Science Applications International Corporation, as discussants.
In a provocative new policy brief, Ashley Tellis challenges the conventional wisdom that China’s antisatellite test (ASAT) was a protest against U.S. space policy, arguing instead that it was part of a loftier strategy to combat U.S. military superiority and one that China will not trade away in any arms-control regime.
This talk included Bernard Chan and Stephen Cheung with Carnegie Endowment’s Vice President for Studies, Mark Medish, as moderator. C.Y. Leung joined for the Q&A period.
As Japan reformulates its foreign policy in the quest to assume a greater leadership role in Asia, it finds it shares an unprecedented convergence in interests, values and strategies with a rising India. The India-Japan relationship can become a key driving force in the emergence of a new security architecture in Asia based on the protection of democratic values and market principles.
China’s soft power policy is fueled by pragmatism. Ideology has a very limited role.
Asia will produce close to, if not, half of the world’s economic product by 2025. This is the real emergent change in international politics, but despite this fact the United States will remain the dominant power in the international system for the foreseeable future.