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Tokyo and Taliban 2.0: Gauging Japan’s Political Stake in Kabul
Tokyo’s perspective on the Taliban is a critical chapter in Japan’s evolving approach to upholding ‘peace’ and ‘security’ in its post-war foreign policy thinking. Despite not being an immediate or major security provider in Afghanistan, Tokyo is a significant stakeholder as a major economic actor in the region and the country. Nevertheless, Japan’s outlook and stance vis-à-vis Taliban remains invariably dependent upon its national interests, alliance partnership with the US, and its ever-growing strategic rivalry with China. Japan’s security policy and regional (if not great) power identity have been, and remain, closely linked to Kabul since the September 11, 2001 attacks. However, growing Chinese interest and Beijing’s mercantilist approach to push forward the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Afghanistan continuously challenge Japan’s economic stakes in the region. Now, post US withdrawal, Japan’s roles as a peace-enabling nation and official developmental assistance provider are poised to merge to build Tokyo’s Afghanistan policies under Taliban 2.0. As such, Japan will attempt to maintain autonomy over its own foreign policy and political future in Kabul, while simultaneously consulting with the US, for ideation direction.
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Japan’s Multi-Domain Defense Force: The Space, Cyber, and Electromagnetic Domains
This article sheds light on Japan’s “Multi-Domain Defense Force” formulated in the National Defense Program Guidelines (NDPG) as well as the Medium Term Defense Program (MTDP) (FY2019-FY2023) approved by the Cabinet decision of December 18, 2018. In the NDPG, the Ministry of Defense sets forth a concept of “cross-domain operations” in which the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) conduct operations not only in the conventional domains (land, sea, and air), but also in new domains (space, cyberspace, and electromagnetic). The Japanese government thus decided to increase its annual defense budget for the fiscal year 2020 to create its Multi-Domain Defense Force in preparation for the cross-domain operations. Why does Japan seek to improve these three new security priorities? This article aims to clarify the nature of these three defense priorities in Japan’s security policy to adapt to today’s rapidly changing security environment.
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China’s Health Diplomacy: Taking Forward the Health Silk Road in Southeast Asia
Geopolitical competition over Covid-19 vaccines is at its peak. In the absence of a fair and equitable mechanism to coordinate vaccine access, procurement seems to be based either on nationalistic goals or on geopolitical favors. While the extent to which major powers like the US and China are using vaccine diplomacy to create long-term dependencies is yet to be seen, signs of it are already noticeable, for example, in Southeast Asia. China’s health diplomacy there is not new but has always been a major part of their strategic relationship and China’s Health Silk Road. Increasing spotlight on it has, however, invited an increased sense of fervor among the Western countries to also court the region. Engagements are already in full swing, and the ASEAN countries are adopting multilateralism to navigate these complex dynamics. So, this paper first seeks to trace the trajectory of China’s health diplomacy in Southeast Asia. Secondly, we shall see how the Chinese health silk road is opening doors to strategic vaccine diplomacy for China.
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India-Nordic Engagement: A Veritable Strategic Partnership in Reimagine and Configure
At a time when strategic partnerships are conceived, either at the altar of existential security-driven geopolitics, the cannibalized inevitability of transactional economics, or for that matter, transcendental narratives engendering notions of solidarity, the budding India-Nordics engagement in blossom is cut from a different cloth. A veritable ‘Strategic Partnership’, embodying dimensions of soft-sector infrastructure capacitation, exuding socio-economic beneficence and wellness, and inducing social capital enhancing civil society compacts, founded in an innovation and sustainability construct—its emblematic of a congruent convergence, around ‘values’ and ‘virtues’. A cogent shared commitment, to the trinity Ds of ‘democratic’ diversity and plurality, ‘demographic’ ingenuity, and ‘demand’ for skills-knitted scale of operation, is driving mutually productive endeavors, in fructifying the three Cs of ‘Connectivity’ across spatiality, the ‘Commerce’ of knowledge-driven entrepreneurship, and ‘Cultures’ of sustainable innovation and rules-based ordering for global commons development.
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Tokyo and Taliban 2.0: Gauging Japan’s Political Stake in Kabul
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Japan’s Multi-Domain Defense Force: The Space, Cyber, and Electromagnetic Domains
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China’s Health Diplomacy: Taking Forward the Health Silk Road in Southeast Asia
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India-Nordic Engagement: A Veritable Strategic Partnership in Reimagine and Configure
Latest Publications
Tokyo and Taliban 2.0: Gauging Japan’s Political Stake in Kabul
Tokyo’s perspective on the Taliban is a critical chapter in Japan’s evolving approach to upholding ‘peace’ and ‘security’ in its post-war foreign policy thinking. Despite not being an immediate or […]
Japan’s Multi-Domain Defense Force: The Space, Cyber, and Electromagnetic Domains
This article sheds light on Japan’s “Multi-Domain Defense Force” formulated in the National Defense Program Guidelines (NDPG) as well as the Medium Term Defense Program (MTDP) (FY2019-FY2023) approved by the […]
China’s Health Diplomacy: Taking Forward the Health Silk Road in Southeast Asia
Geopolitical competition over Covid-19 vaccines is at its peak. In the absence of a fair and equitable mechanism to coordinate vaccine access, procurement seems to be based either on nationalistic […]
- The Usual Suspects: The HDP Closure Case and Erdoğan’s Growing Desperation by Gareth Jenkins
- The Non-ending of Miseries of Workers under AKP rule by Barış Soydan
- The Boğaziçi Protests and the Politics of Fear by Gareth Jenkins
- In the Grip of the State: Can Turkey’s Democrats Surmount State Nationalism? by Oya Baydar
Books
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China’s Energy Security
Picture and text were taken from publisher WSPC’s website. China is the second-largest economy in the world yet it faces serious energy security challenges due to the country’s reliance on […]
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Tomhetens filosofi
Bild och text tagen från Carlsson Bokförlags hemsida Tomheten definieras på olika sätt. Det kan vara den verklighet, eller icke-verklighet, som existerar, eller inte existerar, bortom det individuella jaget. Det […]
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Korea – en civilisation i kläm
Korea är en civilisation som lätt förbises vid jämförelser med Kina och Japan. Men den koreanska kulturen är unik och har haft stort inflytande på sin omvärld. Tryckkonsten med lösa, […]
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Uzbekistan’s New Face
Uzbekistan, long considered the center of Central Asia, has the region’s largest population and borders every other regional state including Afghanistan. For the first 25 years of its independence, it […]
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The Long Game on the Silk Road: U.S. and EU Strategy for Central Asia and the Caucasus
This book argues that American and European policies toward Central Asia and the Caucasus suffer from both conceptual and structural impediments. It traces the framework of Western policies to the […]
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Why Turkey is Authoritarian: From Atatürk to Erdogan
For the last century, the Western world has regarded Turkey as a pivotal case of the ‘clash of civilisations’ between Islam and the West. Why Turkey is Authoritarian offers a […]