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1. Navigating the Belt and Road Initiative Recommendations to ensure beneficial and sustainable BRI outcomes

Author:
Daniel R. Russel and Blake Berger
Publication Date:
06-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
Launched in 2013, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a highly ambitious development effort that would sew together infrastructure projects across more than 70 countries. Estimated to comprise of more than USD $1 trillion in Chinese investment, the BRI is arguably China's broadest economic engagement effort with the rest of the world — enhancing its connectivity through Southeast, South, Central, and West Asia; Africa; Europe; and South America. The Asia Society Policy Institute project – Navigating the Belt and Road Initiative – examines BRI with the aim of setting forth actionable recommendations for how China and partner countries can help ensure that BRI projects yield beneficial and sustainable developmental, economic, environmental, civic, and social outcomes. The project includes a report by the same name, which is available for download below, as well as an interactive visualization of 12 recommended practices and their specific implementation steps, intended outcomes, and relevant Chinese and international precedents. (For interactive content see: https://asiasociety.org/policy-institute/belt-and-road-initiative)
Topic:
Development, Diplomacy, Soft Power, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Investment, and Economic Diplomacy
Political Geography:
Africa, China, Europe, South Asia, Central Asia, Asia, South America, Southeast Asia, and West Asia

2. Charting a Course for Trade and Economic Integration in the Asia-Pacific

Author:
Asia Society Policy Institute
Publication Date:
03-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
OVER THE PAST YEAR, THE GLOBAL AND REGIONAL TRADE LANDSCAPE HAS BEEN CHALLENGED AS NEVER BEFORE. A growing number of people around the world are questioning the value of trade agreements, holding them accountable for slow wage growth, rising inequalities, and job losses. Exemplified by Brexit and the U.S. presidential election, a wave of anti-globalization has washed over the world. Further, global trade is slowing, and existing trade agreements have not kept pace with the changing nature of trade itself, owing to the increasingly important role of digital and services trades. But trade has been one of the strongest drivers behind global growth and stability, particularly in Asia. In the past quarter century, the number of trade agreements in the region has increased dramati- cally. At the same time, Asian countries experienced average annual growth rates nearly 3 percent higher after liberalizing their markets.1 The region’s openness has been a critical ingredient in spurring growth, creating jobs, and lifting millions out of poverty. Trade has also helped nations develop stronger ties, giving them a greater stake in one another’s economic success and reducing the likelihood of conflict. What the French philosopher Montesquieu wrote during the eighteenth century remains as relevant in the twenty-first: “Peace is a natural effect of trade.” 2
Topic:
International Relations, International Political Economy, International Trade and Finance, and Geopolitics
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. Advice for the 45th U.S. President: Opinions from Across the Pacific

Author:
Lindsey. W Ford
Publication Date:
12-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
ON JANUARY 20, 2017, AMERICA’S FIRST “PACIFIC PRESIDENT” WILL DEPART OFFICE. Many Asian observers fear that America’s regional commitments will depart along with him. The election of Donald Trump raises more questions than answers for Asian leaders eager to under- stand the nature of U.S. engagement in the region in the future. There has been a remarkable history of consistency and bipartisanship in the U.S. approach to Asia over many decades. But this election has upended many assumptions about U.S. policy in ways that leave foreign policy experts, both in the United States and abroad, unsure of what to expect next. President-elect Trump has made clear that few things will be “business as usual” for the future. Several of his proposals, including withdrawing the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, and annulling U.S. ratification of the Paris Climate Agreement would reverberate across the region and mark a significant about-face in U.S. policy. Other proposals, less directly related to Asia, such as suspending immigration from certain Muslim nations, would also have implications for Asian countries with significant Muslim majorities or minorities.
Topic:
International Relations, International Organization, and International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4. Roadmap to a Northeast Asian Carbon Market

Author:
J. Jackson Ewing
Publication Date:
09-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
FACING UP TO CLIMATE CHANGE IS A KEY CHALLENGE OF OUR TIME. We are on pace in 2016 to again record the warmest global temperatures ever measured; a distinction that now appears to be an annual occurrence. Weather is becoming less predictable, storms more intense, and drought and flooding more pervasive. This destroys livelihoods, impedes economic progress, and undermines the sustainable development gains we are working hard to achieve. Slowing down and ultimately reversing climate change requires us to lower our greenhouse gas emissions. And effectively pricing carbon emissions is a vital place to start. Pricing carbon through markets creates incentives, sets clear rules, and encourages regulated organizations to lower emissions in flexible ways that work for them. Like much in the current climate change arena, the main action on carbon markets is happening beneath the global scale. After years of chasing global mechanisms to price and trade carbon emissions credits, the landmark Paris Agreement of December 2015 both recognizes and provides political and policy space for efforts at local, state, and regional levels. The relevance of carbon markets is growing apace; almost doubling in scale since 2012 with forty states and twenty-three cities, regions, and provinces pricing emissions worth some $50 billion.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, International Trade and Finance, and Climate Finance
Political Geography:
Asia and Global Focus

5. UN 2030: Rebuilding Order in a Fragmenting World

Author:
Kevin Rudd
Publication Date:
08-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
As the world faces a slew of complicated challenges and the international community comes together to select the next UN Secretary General, there is renewed debate about the role of the UN in international affairs. In UN 2030: Rebuilding Order in a Fragmenting World, Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) President Kevin Rudd argues that the UN continues to matter. The report makes the case that if the UN fails, falters, or fades away, it would fundamentally erode the stability of an already fragile global order. At the same time, Rudd contends, we tend to take the UN for granted, overlooking the reality that its continued existence is not inevitable. The UN, while not yet broken, is in trouble. The report concludes, however, that the UN is capable of reinventing itself. This requires not one-off reforms but a continual process of reinvention to ensure the institution is responding to the policy challenges of our time.
Topic:
United Nations, International Affairs, Political Theory, Geopolitics, and Political and institutional effectiveness
Political Geography:
Global Focus

6. India’s Future in Asia: The APEC Opportunity

Author:
Harsha Singh and Anuphav Gupta
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
At a time of slowing global economic growth, the international community needs to fully tap all the sources of new dynamism and demand available in the world today. India, the world’s fastest-expanding major economy, holds the potential to shore up growth in both the Asia- Pacific region and globally. For that potential to be realized, however, India’s domestic reforms and integration with the Asian and world economies need to progress more rapidly. The advent of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement offers much hope of reinvigorating trade growth in the Asia-Pacific region once it comes into force, but the TPP does not include India. The first and necessary step toward greater Indian participation in Asian trade and investment flows is membership in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. It is a step whose time has come, for India, for APEC, and for the international economy.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance and Global Political Economy
Political Geography:
India

7. India and APEC: Charting a Path to Membership

Author:
Anubhav Gupta
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
India’s membership in APEC would mitigate two significant problems: 1) India’s relatively poor integration into the global economy; and 2) the emergence of a divisive trade agenda in the Asia-Pacific. This issue brief outlines these challenges and highlights the obstacles and opportunities related to India’s inclusion in APEC. It concludes that this is the right time to start considering India’s membership in the forum and that a strategy is needed to chart a pathway for the country’s eventual accession to APEC.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance and Global Political Economy
Political Geography:
India

8. U.S.-China 21 The Future of U.S.-China Relations Under Xi Jinping

Author:
Kevin Rudd
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
The future relationship between China and the United States represents one of the great mega-changes and mega-challenges of our age. Unlike other such changes, the consequences of China’s rise are unfolding gradually, sometimes purposefully, but most of the time imperceptibly while the world’s attention is drawn to more dramatic events elsewhere. With the rise of China, we are observing the geopolitical equivalent of the melting of the polar ice caps. Slowly the ice thins, cracks appear and one day a large sheet of ice spectac- ularly peels away. If captured on camera, the world momentarily sits up and pays attention before CNN returns our gaze to the drama of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s most recent atrocity.
Topic:
International Relations, International Cooperation, and International Affairs
Political Geography:
China and America

9. High Tech: The Next Wave of Chinese Investment in America

Author:
Daniel H. Rosen and Thilo Hanemann
Publication Date:
04-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
WHILE CHINA STARTED INVESTING AROUND THE WORLD in the early 2000s, the first waves of Chinese overseas investment targeted mostly extractive mining activities in developing countries and resource-rich advanced economies such as Australia and Canada. Over the past five years, however, Chinese capital has begun to flow into non-extractive sectors in advanced economies, increasingly targeting technology- and innovation-intensive industries. Initially, the surge of Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in the United States largely responded to opportunities in energy and real estate, but access to technology and innovation is now becoming an important driver. In the first quarter of 2014 alone, Chinese investors announced high-tech deals worth more than $6 billion, including the takeovers of Motorola Mobility, IBM's x86 server unit, and electric carmaker Fisker.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Foreign Direct Investment
Political Geography:
China, America, Canada, Asia, and Australia

10. Avoiding the Blind Alley China’s Economic Overhaul and Its Global Implications

Author:
Daniel H. Rosen
Publication Date:
10-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
DURING THE PAST THREE DECADES, perhaps no country has turned in an economic performance as impressive and transformative as China’s. China has emerged as the world’s second largest economy and its greatest exporting nation, accumulating huge trade surpluses, vast foreign currency reserves, and enormous influence on the global economy. Despite all the attention that policymakers, business executives, and scholars have paid to China’s economic rise, much debate surrounds China’s future growth prospects. For their part, President Xi Jinping and the new generation of Chinese leaders responded to the risk of a major economic slowdown by announcing a far-reaching reform campaign at the Chinese Communist Party’s Third Plenum in November 2013. If Beijing shifts direction along the lines it has announced, the behavior of Chinese companies, government agencies, and individual members of society is likely to change in remarkable ways – and thereby create opportunities for the rest of the world. Should the reform program stall, the effects will be just as profound. Either way, China’s new policy design, and its success or failure in achieving it, will have a major influence on the international economy and stability and security in Asia and beyond. With so much at stake, and an outcome that is far from certain, there is an evident need for greater clarity about what the reform program consists of, how it is progressing, and what it means for policy and business.
Topic:
International Trade and Finance and Global Political Economy
Political Geography:
China