RAMSES 2019. The Clashes of the Future
RAMSES 2019. The Clashes of the Future, written by Ifri's research team and external experts, offers an in-depth and up-to-date analysis of global geopolitics.
The significance of the France-Japan partnership
A dialogue with Yoshiji NOGAMI, Vice-Chairman of the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA).
"One Belt One Road". Asean Plenum 2018
China’s ambitious One Belt One Road (OBOR) Initiative is redefining China’s role in the world economy. With over $900 billion in investments covering more than 65% of the world’s population, OBOR aims to develop new markets, integrate far flung regions, and stabilize China’s borders. But as Chinese influence rises, critics argue that OBOR challenges the liberal international.
Macron, Diplomat: A New French Foreign Policy?
How can we define Emmanuel Macron’s foreign policy since he took office? After Nicolas Sarkozy’s brazen style of “gutsy diplomacy” and François Hollande’s “normal diplomacy”, the eighth president of the Fifth Republic seems to have opted for an agile classicism. In substance, he makes no claim to any radical break with the past, but sees his approach as being in line with historical tradition.
Democracy in Asia: Models, Trends and Geopolitical Implications
Assessing the state of democracy in Asia is a challenge. While some countries, such as Japan and India, have been showing the way from early days, some others, such as in Southeast Asia are still struggling to ensure stable and sustainable democratic institutions and practices.
Papua New Guinea: Continuing to Muddle Through
Papua New Guinea (PNG) is one of the most resource-rich countries in the world, but successive governments have failed to put the country on a stable development track.
CPC's 19th National Congress: A Foreign Policy Perspective
As the 19th National Congress is now over, questions about foreign policy implications of China’s leadership reshuffle are raised.
Alice Ekman deciphers the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in foreign policy terms.
Working with “Last Mile” Data Protection in India
India’s digital economy is characterized by “last mile” data protection, with privacy norms, data collection and sharing standards being set at the level of the application (“app”), operating system (OS) and the device. This practice lends itself to multiple, often crisscrossing rules maintained by smartphone manufacturers, mobile operating system vendors and application developers. The user is caught in a maze of privacy policies that bear on important questions: what data is collected, where it is stored, who it is shared with, and legal recourse in the face of policy violations or unauthorized use of data by third parties.
European Space Programs and the Digital Challenge
The exploration of space and the use of digital tools and systems have in common to be quite recent in human history but to have changed the world, society and economy by connecting people and things, breaking down borders, and redistributing knowledge, power and control.
China and the “Definition Gap”: Shaping Global Governance in Words
Increasingly, China’s diplomacy is using key words commonly used by liberal democracies, but the meaning differs greatly. This evolution is changing the terms of the debate without changing a single term.
RAMSES 2018. Will the Information War Take Place?
RAMSES 2018. Will the Information War Take Place?, written by Ifri's research team and external experts, offers an in-depth and up-to-date analysis of global geopolitics.
Hong Kong, 20 ans years after the retrocession
20 years after its retrocession to China, the 1st July 1997, what are the political and institutionnal autonomy guaranties for Hong Kong, while Carrie Lam is about to take its lead? How long will Hong Kong youth claim its own identity? What challenges for the World City?
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and the New Regional Geopolitics
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) brings a dimensional shift in the two countries' relations at a time of significant geopolitical change. But while it promises wide-ranging benefits for infrastructure development and economic growth in Pakistan, a number of important challenges remain to be overcome if the project is to be sustainable and produce long-term benefits for Pakistanis.
What Role for Japan in Africa's Security After Withdrawal from South Sudan?
There is still a big gap between the discourse and the reality of what Japan wants - and what it can achieve in Africa.
Japan's Security Policy in Africa: The Dawn of a Strategic Approach?
This paper documents new features of Japan's diplomacy that tends to gradually integrate Africa into Japan's strategic interests.
Political Targets: Womenomics as an Economic and Foreign Relations Strategy
This paper provides an overview of the womenomics strategy launched by Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and shows how a plan designed to mitigate Japan’s demographic crises and labor shortages also evolved into a foreign relations strategy to help manage Japan’s reputation abroad on gender equality.
Foreign Policy Challenges for the Next French President
France’s current presidential campaign has created an unprecedented situation fuelled by revelations and a total absence of restraint, but it has not truly taken account of the disruptions of the last year: Brexit, the attempted coup in Turkey, the election of Donald Trump, the recapturing of Aleppo by Bashar al-Assad, Xi Jinping’s declarations about “economic globalization”, or the behavior of North Korea. The debate, or rather its absence, can be looked at in two ways.
Chinese Investors in Ethiopia: The Perfect Match?
Since the fall of the Derg regime in 1991, cordial relations have developed between China and Ethiopia, forming a positive political backdrop in front of which the two countries’ interests have increasingly converged.
Japan: The Reluctant Cyberpower
Japan’s cyberdefenses remain underdeveloped compared to the country’s great reliance on information and communications technology. Despite Japan’s initial slow response to the security challenges emerging from cyberspace, this paper posits that cybersecurity under the administration of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has moved to the core of the country’s national security policy. The 2020 Olympics Games are a major catalyst for this.
Tough Balancing Act for Japan’s Abe in Second Meeting With Trump
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the first foreign leader to meet with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump after his election. On Friday, Feb. 10, he will meet with President Trump, before spending the weekend at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
Tokyo face aux désastres naturels : leçons, enjeux et défis
While Tokyo prepares to welcome the 2020 Summer Olympic Games, the likelihood that a massive earthquake will occur in the capital city within the next thirty years is estimated at 70 %. This fact alone reflects the challenges that Japan must face in managing the risk of natural disasters.
Determinants of Japan’s ODA Allocation in Africa
The debate on emerging donors raises a question whether traditional donors really follow their own ODA (Official Development Assistance) policies or not. This paper addresses the question by investigating Japan’s adherence to its own ODA policies.
Japan's Challenges in Public Diplomacy, An American Vision
Japan’s public diplomacy (PD) profile rests almost exclusively on the promotion of its cultural soft power. Today, in the complex geopolitical setting of Asia, in which national rivalries are reviving competing wartime history narratives and territorial disputes, this approach is no longer sufficient to advance Japan’s own national interests and gain favorable opinion abroad. Under the Prime Minister Abe, Japan has begun to transform and upgrade its public diplomacy. However, the country is still facing a number of challenges.
China’s Emerging Middle Class: What Political Impact?
This research paper argues that, contrary to what is often believed, most of the Chinese middle class appears to be politically conservative, and may not challenge the current political order as much as is expected, for several reasons; first of all, because of its strong connection to the Communist Party of China and the civil service in broader terms. Nonetheless, Chinese middle households are increasingly voicing their concern about a set of issues directly affecting them, such as pollution, either in the street or online.
Nationalism in China and Japan and Implications for Bilateral Relations
Nationalism appears to be an important part of the growing frictions between China and Japan.
In Japan, the return to power of Shinzo Abe as prime minister, and the historic breakthrough of an extreme right-wing party onto the political scene reinforce the view that there has been a clear shift to the right. Public opinion is today also more realistic about direct security threats to Japan.
China's Fortress Fleet-in-Being and its Implications for Japan's Security
This paper analyzes the rise of maritime China and its implications for Japan’s security policy.
Security Partnerships in Japan's Asia Strategy: Creating Order, Building Capacity and Sharing Burden
During the last decade, Japan has sought partnership with many Asian nations - the drive remaining strong regardless of ruling parties. Newly elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan is to continue this trend under the name of ‘value diplomacy".
Asia: A Geopolitical Reconfiguration
The Asian “supercomplex” has taken shape: this is evident within the cross-membership model to Asian intergovernmental organizations and through the appearance of political counterweights to China, particularly in India.
Will We Drive Electric on Asian Batteries?
The development of the electric car market, supported by public funding, needs to be monitored closely. Currently, except for Renault benefiting from its electric partnership with Nissan, batteries for electric vehicles will most likely be outsourced. A lot of joint ventures are being signed with Asian battery companies and automotive suppliers. As a consequence, some argue that there is no rational to develop further and fund the European battery industry: batteries are already made more cheaply elsewhere.
FDI as a Factor of Economic Restructuring: The Case of South Korea
Françoise Nicolas, in A. Bende-Nabende, (ed.), International Trade, Capital Flows and Economic Development in East Asia: The Challenge in the 21st Century, London, Ashgate, 2003
Ifri, a foundation recognized as being of public utility, relies largely on private donors – companies and individuals – to guarantee its sustainability and intellectual independence. Through their funding, donors help maintain the Institute's position among the world's leading think tanks. By benefiting from an internationally recognized network and expertise, donors refine their understanding of geopolitical risk and its consequences on global politics and the economy. In 2026, Ifri partners with over 90 French and international companies and organizations.
