Q & A Archive

The leaders of China, Japan and South Korea, which together account for 20 percent of global GDP, will meet in Beijing this weekend for their fifth annual trilateral summit. The summit is intended to enhance cooperation in a wide range of areas, including security issues, but it will focus mainly on trade. Before leaving for Beijing, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda expressed his hope that the three leaders would announce the start of negotiations for a trilateral free trade agreement. But Claude Barfield, a resident scholar and international trade policy expert at the American Enterprise Institute, and Richard C. Bush […]

The announcement last week that the U.S. is doubling its foreign aid to the Philippines came as the U.S. ally remains locked in a maritime standoff with China over a territorial dispute in the South China Sea. In an email interview, Richard D. Fisher, Jr., a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, discussed U.S.-Philippines military cooperation. WPR: In what concrete ways is U.S.-Philippines military cooperation being expanded in response to the Philippines’ territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea? Richard D. Fisher, Jr.: After nearly 20 years of U.S. and mainly Philippine indifference following the […]

Canada’s efforts to join the negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement received a boost last month when Chile agreed to support Canadian participation. In an email interview, Laura Dawson, president of Dawson Strategic, discussed Canada’s attempt to join the negotiations. WPR: What are Canada’s motivations — political and economic — to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and how receptive are the current members to Canada’s membership bid? Laura Dawson: The Trans-Pacific Partnership is the focal point of Canada’s external trade strategy. While three-quarters of Canadian exports still go the United States, future growth depends on trade with emerging markets […]

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has wrapped up her latest trip to Asia, which included stops in China, Bangladesh and India, where she met with government officials to review the strategic partnership between India and the United States. She emphasized that the countries must expand trade and investment, deepen security cooperation, promote a shared vision for the region and, she told the media in Delhi, “meet the challenges and seize the opportunities in South and Central Asia.” But Stephen Cohen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told Trend Lines there have been no major changes in the U.S.-Indian […]

In one of several military operations that have been launched over the past year to tackle illegal gold mining, illegal deforestation and drug smuggling in the Amazon rain forest, Brazil is sending more than 8,500 troops to patrol an area that stretches across the northern border of the country. The deployment, which underscores Brazil’s efforts to assert greater control over the more than two-thirds of the Amazon that falls within its borders, comes as international expectations over Brazil’s role as a regional power rise — and as a United Nations conference on sustainable development to be held in Rio de […]

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite declined an invitation by Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski earlier this month to join her Baltic colleagues in Poland to discuss regional security issues ahead of the NATO Summit in Chicago in May. In an email interview, Kinga Dudzinska, an analyst in the Eastern and Southeastern Europe program at the Polish Institute of International Affairs, discussed Polish-Baltic relations. WPR: How have Poland’s political and economic relations with the Baltic countries evolved in the post-Cold War period?Kinga Dudzinska: Since Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia regained their independence from the USSR in 1991 and joined the European Union and NATO […]

Yulia Tymoshenko’s hunger strike to protest her alleged assault in the prison where she is serving a sentence on charges of abuse of power returned the former prime minister to the center of growing tensions between Ukraine and the European Union. Her case has further damaged already strained ties between the EU and Ukraine, a member of the Eastern Partnership initiative that the EU launched in 2009, in part to promote human rights in six post-Soviet states. In addition to Ukraine, the other participating states are Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Moldova. For Nicu Popescu and Jana Kobzova, both experts […]

Mauritanian President Anerood Jugnauth recently resigned in order to rejoin party politics. In an email interview, Deborah Brautigam, a professor at American University, discussed the current state of governance and politics in Mauritius. WPR: What is Mauritius’ political culture like? Deborah Brautigam: Domestic politics in Mauritius is partly driven by the recognition that the island country is politically, geographically and economically vulnerable. Recognizing that vulnerability, different coalitions of political leaders have been able to strike a delicate balance, combining astute policies that strive to position Mauritius strategically to catch the waves of globalization with social policies that keep the population […]

Last month Uzbekistan stopped the shipment of gas to Tajikistan, a move that Tajikistan qualified as part of an ongoing rail transport and energy blockade. In an email interview, Idil Tuncer Kilavuz, lecturer at Marmara University in Istanbul, Turkey, discussed Uzbekistan-Tajikistan relations. WPR: How have Uzbekistan-Tajikistan relations evolved since the fall of the Soviet Union? Idil Tuncer Kilavuz: Since Uzbekistan and Tajikistan gained independence in 1991, their relations have been poor. Just after the fall of the Soviet Union, Tajikistan experienced a civil war in which Uzbekistan supported the existing Tajikistan leadership, which won the war in 1997. However, relations […]

Over the weekend, tens of thousands Malaysian demonstrators took to the streets to demand electoral reforms from the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Najib Razak. The rally, which ended with Malaysian police arresting more than 450 people amid charges of police brutality, raised questions about whether the government might delay its plans to call early elections. Although elections do not need to be held until April 2013, Najib, who has been working to improve his image and bolster public support for his ruling coalition, was expected to hold the polls as early as June. “The enormous turnout indicates that there […]

The Gulf Cooperation Council’s Joint Peninsula Shield regional security alliance held a joint naval exercise Sunday and Monday in the Persian Gulf, amid heightened tensions over the recent visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Abu Masa, one of three disputed islands in the Gulf claimed by both Iran and the United Arab Emirates. In an email interview, Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a research fellow at the London School of Economics, discussed the naval capabilities of the GCC countries. WPR: What are the relative naval capabilities, in terms of fleet makeup, training and preparedness, of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries? Kristian […]