Asia & Pacific Archives - Page 97 of 373

Osprey Outrage on Okinawa

by Seamus Murphy | Nov 2, 2012

Peace and tranquillity never really seem to last long in Okinawa. Looking over the dark blue Pacific on a cloudy morning, an Okinawan fisherman will hear a steady drone emanating from a U.S. Air Force C-130 transport aircraft. As it thunders low over the island’s small houses, the deafening roar from four Rolls-Royce engines drowns out school teachers and rattles window panes. The behemoth descends to land at Kadena Airbase and calm is temporarily restored.

What Explains Aung San Suu Kyi’s Silence About the Persecution of Burma’s Minorities?

by Russ Wellen | Nov 2, 2012

It’s difficult to understand why Aung San Suu Kyi dodges ethnic issues.

Postcard from Kiribati

by Andre Vltchek | Oct 30, 2012

The U.S. Coast Guard Hercules plane parked at Bonriki International Airport fires one by one its mighty engines, and the crowd immediately begins to cheer. There is not much to do on Tarawa Archipelago, and the U.S. military and coastguard planes landing here for refueling almost every day are the main source of entertainment for the local people, especially children.

Raising the Stakes in Asia

by Richard Javad Heydarian | Oct 25, 2012

While the proponents of the U.S. pivot to Asia argue that it enhances regional security, it is in reality precipitating a much more explicit Sino-American rivalry, thus undermining the prospects of an amicable and pluralistic regional order. Ultimately, America’s growing military presence in the region could backfire, giving birth to what it dearly seeks to prevent.

Marching Orders for Japan’s Reactionaries

by Jon Reinsch | Oct 18, 2012

Richard Armitage is at it again. George W. Bush’s deputy secretary of state has made a career of telling Japan what to do. When then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi had second thoughts about joining the “coalition of the willing” in Iraq, Armitage told an official, “Don’t try to back off.” Earlier, he had advised Japan (in Gavan McCormack’s paraphrase) to “pull its head out of the sand and make sure the Rising Sun flag was visible in the Afghanistan war.”

Hawaii: Head of the Tentacled Beast

by Jon Letman | Oct 18, 2012

The announcement of America’s “Asia-Pacific pivot” by its first Hawaiia-born president was highly fitting, since the Hawaiian Islands are at the piko (“navel” in Hawaiian) of this vast region. A less flattering metaphor for Hawaii’s role in the Pacific is what Maui educator and native Hawaiian activist Kaleikoa Kaeo has called a giant octopus whose tentacles reach across the ocean clutching Japan, Okinawa, South Korea, Jeju island, Guam—and, at times, the Philippines, American Samoa, Wake Island, Bikini Atoll, and Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

Japan’s Right Seeks to Leverage Islands Dispute With China Into a Nuclear-Arms Program

by Conn Hallinan | Oct 17, 2012

Japan’s right-wing is trying to make the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands dispute an example of why Japan needs nuclear weapons.

The First Year of Peace on the Korean Peninsula

by Christine Hong | Oct 11, 2012

This year may signal the 59^th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice Agreement, yet according to South Korean peace activists like Kang, it signals the last year of war on the Korean peninsula. I spoke recently with Kang Jeong-Koo, a longtime activist-scholar and a steadfast champion of peace, at the Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea (SPARK) headquarters in Seoul.

R2P Strikes a Chord: Sovereignty Alone Is Not Enough

by Ian Williams | Oct 11, 2012

Out of deference to its founding principles of respect for sovereignty, the United Nations has failed to protect populations from slaughter.

Review: Obama and China’s Rise

by Shiran Shen | Oct 9, 2012

The main geostrategic challenge facing Asia—as well as the U.S. presence there—has been the extraordinary rise of China in the past decade. In Obama and China’s Rise, Jeffrey Bader, a veteran diplomat of over 30 years, recounts his experiences working for Obama’s presidential campaign and serving as the senior director for East Asian affairs on Obama’s National Security Council from January 2009 to April 2011.