The ASEAN Economic Community’s Original Integration Model
When it was created 50 years ago, ASEAN's (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) economic ambitions were rather modest. However, up until 1992 it progressively integrated the economies of its member states.
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.
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.
Japan and France: Slowly but Surely Moving Forward on Security Cooperation
Despite being geographically distant, France and Japan share a number of converging interests.
Japan’s Coast Guard and Maritime Self-Defense Force in the East China Sea: Can a Black-and-White System Adapt to a Gray-Zone Reality?
This essay examines the need for growing coordination between the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) to better cope with gray-zone situations.
South China Sea and the Law of the Sea: Where is China’s Power Heading?
On Tuesday July 12th, after three years of deliberations, the Permanent Court of Arbitration finally delivered its verdict on the conflict opposing the Philippines and China over status of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The judgment is historic, as it goes far beyond the expectations of the involved parties and observers.
Japan's New Dual-Use Space Policy: The Long Road to the 21st Century
Japan’s latest space policy is designed to support a more proactive US-Japan alliance role in containing China, and robustly defend Japan against North Korean ballistic missile threats.
Latin America's Dashed Hopes
Only recently, Latin America seemed to embody an inexorable movement towards political democratization, towards a decrease in stark inequalities as well as greater involvement in the global economy. But the dream remains unrealized.
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