The New Zealand General Election held on Saturday 27 November saw the defeat of the center-right National Party (under Prime Minister Jenny Shipley) and election of a center-left government dominated by the Labour Party (Helen Clark) supported by the smaller, left-wing Alliance (Jim Anderton). The result is seen as an end to 15 years of […]

Much has been written about the U.S.-Japan-China and U.S.-Japan-Russia trilateral relationships and their respective impact on the broader Asia-Pacific security environment. There is, however, another three-way relationship that attracts far less attention but which can have an equally far-reaching impact on regional security. I refer to U.S./Japan relations with the Republic of Korea today and […]

Asian views of the West have always been mixed. In virtually every Asian country there is love and hate for the West… trust and suspicion… feelings of friendship as well as enmity… the urge to engage and cooperate, and to beware… respect and condemnation.

On August 4 and 5, 1999, the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) and the Korean Navy held their first-ever joint exercises, heralding a new era for Korea-Japan security cooperation. The joint exercises – which introduced the Korean Navy to a receptive Japanese public – began on August 2 with two Korean warships and 3 […]

At the Fortune Global Forum in Shanghai this past September, President Jiang Zemin called for a China by 2050 that will be “wealthy, strong, democratic, civilised, and socialist”.

However one judges the merits of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), no one can deny that both the treaty’s defeat in the Senate and the process by which that result was reached have done grave damage. Perhaps the greatest harm was that done to the confidence our friends and allies, our potential adversaries, and […]

The U.S. Senate’s rejection of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) last month is not likely to result in the immediate resumption of nuclear weapons tests, either by the U.S. or by anyone else. While the Senate vote has effectively killed any hope for immediate ratification of the CTBT by other significant treaty hold-outs, none […]

With the conclusion of the U.S.-DPRK talks in Berlin in mid-September, the United States averted another potential crisis with the irascible North Koreans. This pattern of negotiation and brinkmanship, dating back to the 1992-94 events that led to the Agreed Framework, has become familiar albeit no less comforting as the outcome in each iteration always […]

The 1990s can be characterized by the globalization of our economies and societies, which will shape our lives in the years ahead. At present, change is being forced on Japan because of this movement, both from inside by people who realize that change is necessary to benefit from the global age, as well as from […]

Please consider the second issue of our quarterly electronic journal, Comparative Connections, as PacNet #40. To review Comparative Connections in its entirety, please visit our website at www.csis.org/pacfor/ccejournal.