In this week’s podcast, we take a deep dive on the difficulties in United States-Thailand relations since the May 2014 coup. We sat down with Sumitro Chair Fellow Gregory Poling to discuss the challenges that Thailand’s swerve away from democracy has created…
By Gregory Poling Fijian prime minister Voreqe “Frank” Bainimarama on May 6 reiterated that he will not attend any Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders’ meetings as long as Australia and New Zealand remain full members, rather than development partners like…
By Zachary Abuza On April 20, the United States and the Philippines commenced the 31st annual Balikatan military exercises. They are significant for three reasons. The first is their size. With some 6,500 U.S. personnel and 5,000 Armed Forces of…
By Joshua Simonidis In September 2014 the Cambodian government signed an agreement with Canberra to resettle a potentially unlimited number of refugees originally destined for Australia in exchange for increased aid. Human rights groups criticized the agreement and Cambodia’s capacity…
This week we look ahead to Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to the United States. Longtime U.S.-Japan hands CSIS Japan Chair Dr. Michael Green and CSIS Simon Chair Matthew Goodman join the podcast to describe the state of the…
By Kathleen Hicks & Michael J. Green The following post draws on the work of the CSIS Federated Defense in Asia project, which released its findings in December 2014. As regional security challenges grow in Asia, it is increasingly important…
By Gregory Poling The last half of March provided troubling examples of the toll increasingly frequent extreme weather events will take on countries in the twenty-first century, and particularly on small-island developing states. But it also underscored the increasing international…
This week we discuss the U.S. reaction to China’s new infrastructure bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Simon Chair Deputy Director Amy Studdart describes the bank’s origins, explains why Washington’s critique of its allies for joining AIIB has proven…
On March 13 tropical Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu, causing widespread damage across the archipelago nation in the South Pacific. Vanuatu’s president Baldwin Lonsdale said the Category 5 storm “wiped out” all economic development Vanuatu has seen in recent years and…
By Andrew Smith The Australian government recently released a request for tender to supply reconnaissance vehicles for the army. This purchase is Phase 2 of Project LAND 400 that aims to refresh most of the army’s ground combat vehicle fleet.…
