ISDP Voices

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) isn’t quite as lucrative as often advertised. Ten projects found in six nations – Vanuatu, Indonesia, Myanmar, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and Hungary – could not generate sufficient revenue to justify the cost. Projects in Mongolia and Azerbaijan face the same problem, despite gross gains. It falls on these countries to […]

The wisdom of the U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to visit Taiwan has been questioned by commentators and politicians all over the world, not only by Beijing’s supporters but also by some friends of Taiwan and people in Taiwan. This is easy to understand. Many of us worried that her visit would increase the […]

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan has reiterated that China is a master at manipulating the agenda and changing the narrative of what could have been ultimately a rather uneventful – albeit significant – trip in the name of what China perceives to be its national interest. Beijing has defined this […]

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan on August 2 is an explicit demonstration of American resolve in the Indo-Pacific and commitment to the U.S. allies and partners throughout the region. Unsurprisingly, it has generated extensive controversy and poked China in its Achilles’ heel, eliciting a multitude of warnings and actions (from economic coercion […]

It took barely a decade to turn the NATO security assessment on its head. The NATO strategic concept, a binding document that lays down the very reason for its existence, predicts the future course of action for the world’s oldest and longest military alliance. In the third edition of the NATO Strategic Concept adopted in […]

From the perspective of Japan’s global health diplomacy, its commitment to the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility has been of significance in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. COVAX is a vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, and co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine […]

The war in Ukraine will have far-reaching consequences beyond European security. For many politicians and experts in Europe the possibility of a full-scale attack on a sovereign country as Russia launched on February 24 on Ukraine, had for long been ruled a remnant of the past. The wake-up call to a new reality could not […]

Despite their relative economic and strategic insignificance, the Kuril Islands, especially the southernmost part of the chain, known in Japan as the Northern Territories, have long played a decisive role in determining the state of Russian-Japanese relations. More than a piece of territory, the islands hold immense symbolic value for both parties, and to leave […]

Joseph Zen is a well known and beloved cardinal of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong. He has served as the sixth Bishop of the city. In 2006 Zen was appointed Cardinal by the Pope and has been outspoken on issues regarding human rights, political freedom and religious liberty. His strong ties with the pro-democracy […]

Seen from a Russian-Chinese perspective, in many ways Ukraine and Taiwan are similar. Both nations are ethnically, socially and culturally deeply connected to their main adversary. Both are democracies, eager to break out of the Communist mold and become vibrant capitalist economies. Both look for support from the West, especially the US, and have considerable […]