pacific forum History of Pacific Forum

PacNet #1 – The Clash of Civilizations vs. the War on Terror: Some Hard Facts

Editor’s note: It is with deep sadness that we report the passing of a dear friend and leading Asia intellectual, Tan Sri Dr. Noordin Sopiee, Chairman and CEO of ISIS-Malaysia and one of the founding fathers of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP). This article was written by him 18 months […]

Issues & Insights Vol. 06 – No. 01

U.S. policy in East Asia and especially toward the People’s Republic of China is evolving in the Bush administration’s second term. Gone are references to “the best ever” in describing Sino-U.S. relations; added are new concerns centered around China’s international diplomacy in areas far afield from Asia and a more vigorous emphasis by Washington on […]

PacNet #56A – Changing Course in Northeast Asia

No issue is more timely or more consequential for the long-term peace and security of the world than the creation of a new framework to promote regional stability in Northeast Asia. Three major wars involving the United States were fought in in the middle decades of the last century. Currently the likelihood of war in […]

PacNet #56 – The Way for Denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula

Editor’s note: The following is a carefully edited version of a paper presented at the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) study group on countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the Asia Pacific region. It has been edited for style and readability. The opinions are those of the author’s […]

PacNet #55C – The East Asia Summit: Much Ado About Something?

Was the inaugural East Asia Summit (EAS), held in Kuala Lumpur on Dec. 14, “much ado about nothing,” as many critics are already claiming, or “a historic event whose future impact is likely to be as significant as the first [1976] ASEAN summit,” as Barry Desker, head of Singapore’s influential Institute of Defence and Strategic […]

PacNet #55A – The First East Asia Summit

The first East Asia Summit (EAS) did what it could and, in all the circumstances, it did pretty well. There is little doubt that the initiative ran off the rails and that the process of getting it back on the tracks – although probably not the tracks originally envisaged – was incomplete when the date […]

PacNet #55 – Geostrategic imperatives of the East Asia Summit

The inaugural East Asia Summit (EAS) ended Dec. 14 with the issuance of the Kuala Lumpur Declaration, a minimalist statement that appears to lack real substance. Touted as the economic “coming together” of, it turned out to be more of a geo-strategic power play.

PacNet #54B – The East Asia Summit: Should Washington Be Concerned?

The first East Asia Summit (EAS) begins on Wednesday (Dec 14) in Kuala Lumpur. It brings together heads of government from the ten ASEAN countries, their “Plus Three” partners (China, Japan, and South Korea), plus India, Australia, and New Zealand. Russian President Vladimir Putin has also been invited to meet with the group, even though […]

PacNet #54A – What to Expect at the First East Asia Summit

The summit (EAS) is something of an enigma. The inaugural session is scheduled to be held in Kuala Lumpur on December 14 but its objectives, agenda, and modalities as well as its origins (which can provide important clues to these questions) are quite difficult to pin down.