In May 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a speech at the Garden Island Naval Base in Sydney, Australia, where he outlined a French strategy for the Indo-Pacific. With this speech, France formally positioned itself as an ‘Indo-Pacific power’ and became the first European country...
Asia
Asia is now a nerve center for global economic activity and a theatre of some of the most critical political and security developments of our time. The Center for Asian Studies provides documented expertise and a platform of discussion on Asian issues that seeks to accompany decision makers and explain and contextualize developments in the region for the sake of a larger public dialogue.
Ifri's Center for Asian Studies’ research is organized along three major axes: regionalism and intra-regional relationships in Asia; relations between Asia’s major powers (China, Japan, India) and the rest of the world; and internal political, economic and social dynamics of Asian countries. This research focuses primarily on China, India and Japan, but also increasingly covers the Korean peninsula, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands and the Indo-Pacific Strategies.
The Center organizes closed-door roundtables, expert-level seminars and a number of public events, including an Annual Conference, that welcome experts from Asia, Europe and the United States. The Center’s researchers regularly participate in international conferences, particularly in Asia. Their work, as well as that of their partners, is regularly published in the Center’s electronic journal Asie.Visions.
Research Fellow, Head of Japan Research, Coordinator of the Program on Pacific Islands,
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Research Fellow, Center for Asian Studies
...Advisor to the Program on Pacific Islands, Center for Asian Studies
...Senior Advisor, Center for Asian Studies
...Associate Research Fellow, Center for Asian Studies
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A Region of Flashpoints? Security in the Indo-Pacific CSDS Policy Brief, 15/2021, September 16, 2021
The Indo-Pacific mega-region is home to the world’s most fluid, complex, and dangerous security environment. Lingering traditional security flashpoints (Taiwan Strait, North Korea, territorial disputes) are exacerbated by the rise of China and the US–China great power competition.
In the 2010s, Japan gradually increased economic connections with the Indian Ocean region (IOR) through trade, foreign direct investment, and official development assistance (ODA).
Moving away from its traditional low-profile attitude, China has gradually shifted to a muscular foreign policy in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis and the resulting change in the global balance of power.
Since the post-colonial period, China and Tanzania have maintained a close diplomatic relationship. This note offers a subtle analysis of the changing relationship between both countries since the 1960s. It assesses the economic ties and studies the collaboration of both countries in the...
The United States underwent a fundamental transformation in its stance on China during the Trump presidency.
India has long been a positive and committed partner in global and domestic climate change mitigation efforts.
One indisputable trend of Xi Jinping’s leadership since taking up the reins of government in 2012 has been the reaffirming of the Party’s control over the state, the army, society, and the economy. To this aim, establishing heightened control over the national security...
The pandemic has revealed the fragility of the Indian economy.
China is now an undeniable heavyweight on the international scene, wielding a remarkable range of political strategies. Studying its position in the surrounding area of Southeast Asia in relation to Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, as well...
Approaching the Indo-Pacific: American, French, Indian and Japanese Visions
The Indo-Pacific has become a buzzword since 2017, as it came to be used by all major players in the region stretching from East Africa to the Pacific.
The Rise of China in the Pacific Islands: Strategic Threat or Economic Opportunity? Séminaire
China's growing influence in the South Pacific is raising an increasing number of sensitive questions about the region's development and its role in regional geopolitics.
Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and Inter-Korean Relations: Diverging Views from Seoul
The resumption of the inter-Korean dialogue on the occasion of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics has generated strong reactions among both South Korea's political elite and the general public.
Democracy in Asia: Models, Experiences and Challenges
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.
Competing Worldviews and the Changing Order in Asia
As the regional balance of power in Asia continues to evolve and tensions in a number of hot spots - from the Korean Peninsula to the East and South China Seas and the Taiwan Strait - either simmer or intensify, the future of regional stability is increasingly uncertain. Within this context,...
A Brave New World for Trade? Discussing the Trade Strategies of the US, EU, Japan and China
The global environment for trade is undergoing significant changes.
China’s Belt and Road – Towards Globalization with Chinese Characteristics? Ifri-OCP Policy Center Roundtables
In 2013, Chinese president Xi Jinping first unveiled his broad vision to develop regional connectivity and infrastructure across Eurasia that would later be officially named the Belt and Road Initiative (or yi dai yi lu, One Belt, One Road, or OBOR).
Deepening the Franco-Japanese Cooperation in Africa: the Economic and Security Dimensions
It is now clear that some African countries are on their way to achieve a dynamic economic growth that will uphold the overall development of the continent. At the same time, they are still struggling with the lack of economic and social infrastructure, governance issues and a complex and...
Japan's Relations with China and South Korea: The Way ahead
Japan-China relations and Japan-South Korea relations, both very important pillars of international relations in East Asia, are instable and often fraught with bitterness. Controversial...
India-Pakistan Relations under the Modi Government
Midway through his term since elected to office in May 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Pakistan policy has undergone dramatic shifts. From initial enthusiasm to making an impromptu visit to Lahore in December 2015, and then carrying out ‘surgical strikes’ against Pakistan-based...
China and France see French president’s visit as chance to transform bilateral ties after Brexit and election of Donald Trump. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, will make his first official visit to China...
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.
On Thursday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dissolved Japan’s parliament, the starting pistol for the snap elections he called a year early to get over a “national crisis.”
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?
Philippines' President wants to limit islamist groups' capacity after several attacks in the South of the country.
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.
A closer look at China’s vision for remaking Asian security, and what the United States can do about it. In October, China hosted the seventh Xiangshan Forum in Beijing, during which Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin outlined a framework for a regional security architecture...
Beijing has a plan for a new regional security architecture, and it’s not based around alliances.
Mapping Europe-China Relations: A bottom-up approach -- a recent report of the European Think-tank Network on China (