"One Belt One Road". Asean Plenum 2018
China’s ambitious One Belt One Road (OBOR) Initiative is redefining China’s role in the world economy. With over $900 billion in investments covering more than 65% of the world’s population, OBOR aims to develop new markets, integrate far flung regions, and stabilize China’s borders. But as Chinese influence rises, critics argue that OBOR challenges the liberal international.
Macron, Diplomat: A New French Foreign Policy?
How can we define Emmanuel Macron’s foreign policy since he took office? After Nicolas Sarkozy’s brazen style of “gutsy diplomacy” and François Hollande’s “normal diplomacy”, the eighth president of the Fifth Republic seems to have opted for an agile classicism. In substance, he makes no claim to any radical break with the past, but sees his approach as being in line with historical tradition.
Democracy in Asia: Models, Trends and Geopolitical Implications
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.
Papua New Guinea: Continuing to Muddle Through
Papua New Guinea (PNG) is one of the most resource-rich countries in the world, but successive governments have failed to put the country on a stable development track.
CPC's 19th National Congress: A Foreign Policy Perspective
As the 19th National Congress is now over, questions about foreign policy implications of China’s leadership reshuffle are raised.
Alice Ekman deciphers the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in foreign policy terms.
Working with “Last Mile” Data Protection in India
India’s digital economy is characterized by “last mile” data protection, with privacy norms, data collection and sharing standards being set at the level of the application (“app”), operating system (OS) and the device. This practice lends itself to multiple, often crisscrossing rules maintained by smartphone manufacturers, mobile operating system vendors and application developers. The user is caught in a maze of privacy policies that bear on important questions: what data is collected, where it is stored, who it is shared with, and legal recourse in the face of policy violations or unauthorized use of data by third parties.
European Space Programs and the Digital Challenge
The exploration of space and the use of digital tools and systems have in common to be quite recent in human history but to have changed the world, society and economy by connecting people and things, breaking down borders, and redistributing knowledge, power and control.
China and the “Definition Gap”: Shaping Global Governance in Words
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.
RAMSES 2018. Will the Information War Take Place?
RAMSES 2018. Will the Information War Take Place?, written by Ifri's research team and external experts, offers an in-depth and up-to-date analysis of global geopolitics.
Hong Kong, 20 ans years after the retrocession
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?
China’s Emerging Middle Class: What Political Impact?
This research paper argues that, contrary to what is often believed, most of the Chinese middle class appears to be politically conservative, and may not challenge the current political order as much as is expected, for several reasons; first of all, because of its strong connection to the Communist Party of China and the civil service in broader terms. Nonetheless, Chinese middle households are increasingly voicing their concern about a set of issues directly affecting them, such as pollution, either in the street or online.
Nationalism in China and Japan and Implications for Bilateral Relations
Nationalism appears to be an important part of the growing frictions between China and Japan.
In Japan, the return to power of Shinzo Abe as prime minister, and the historic breakthrough of an extreme right-wing party onto the political scene reinforce the view that there has been a clear shift to the right. Public opinion is today also more realistic about direct security threats to Japan.
Asia: A Geopolitical Reconfiguration
The Asian “supercomplex” has taken shape: this is evident within the cross-membership model to Asian intergovernmental organizations and through the appearance of political counterweights to China, particularly in India.
Security Partnerships in Japan's Asia Strategy: Creating Order, Building Capacity and Sharing Burden
During the last decade, Japan has sought partnership with many Asian nations - the drive remaining strong regardless of ruling parties. Newly elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan is to continue this trend under the name of ‘value diplomacy".
China's Fortress Fleet-in-Being and its Implications for Japan's Security
This paper analyzes the rise of maritime China and its implications for Japan’s security policy.
Will We Drive Electric on Asian Batteries?
The development of the electric car market, supported by public funding, needs to be monitored closely. Currently, except for Renault benefiting from its electric partnership with Nissan, batteries for electric vehicles will most likely be outsourced. A lot of joint ventures are being signed with Asian battery companies and automotive suppliers. As a consequence, some argue that there is no rational to develop further and fund the European battery industry: batteries are already made more cheaply elsewhere.
FDI as a Factor of Economic Restructuring: The Case of South Korea
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