The Asia Chessboard

This week Mike hosts Richard Heydarian, Senior Lecturer at the University of the Philippines Asian Center and author of, among others, Asia’s New Battlefield (2015, Bloomsbury) & The Indo-Pacific: Trump, China & The New Struggle for Global Mastery (2019, Palgrave), to discuss the Philippines' foreign policy, relationships, and strategy in the Indo-Pacific.

Mike hosts Jina Kim, Dean of Language and Diplomacy Division at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, to discuss South Korea's foreign policy and strategy in the Indo-Pacific.

This week Mike hosts Jude for a final goodbye episode to get Jude's synopsis of the China watching fields ability to understand China, what they have rightly predicted, what has been missed, Beijing's politics, and many other topics discussed in previous episodes.

This week Mike and Jude are joined by Aaron Connelly, Asia diplomatic editor and senior Asia correspondent at The Economist, where he writes about geopolitics and security across Asia. They discuss his recent Adelphi Series book New Answers to Old Questions: Myanmar Before and After the 2021 Coup D’État.

This week Mike and Jude are joined by Rick Waters, managing director of Eurasia Group's China practice. Rick previously served as the US State Department's top China policy official, overseeing the creation of the Office of China Coordination, informally known as the China House, and concurrently serving as deputy assistant secretary of state for China and Taiwan.

This week Mike and Jude are joined by David Capie, Director of the Centre for Strategic Studies and Professor of International Relations at the Victoria University of Wellington. They discuss New Zealand’s transitioning approach to its regional relationships.

This week Mike is joined by Elina Noor, Senior Fellow for the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. They discuss Malaysia’s approach to geopolitics and outlook for the future.

This week Mike and Jude are joined by joined by Robert D. Blackwill, Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Richard Fontaine, Chief Executive Officer of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). They discuss their new book Lost Decade: The US Pivot to Asia and the Rise of Chinese Power (June 2024, Oxford University Press).

This week Mike and Jude are joined by join Lt. General Stephen Sklenka, USMC, Deputy Commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. They discuss deterrence and the current state of play in the Indo-Pacific region.

This week Mike and Jude are joined by Benedetta Berti, Director of Policy Planning in the Office of the Secretary General at NATO, whose areas of expertise include human security, internal conflict, integration of armed groups, post-conflict stabilization, and peacebuilding among others. They discuss NATO’s developing perspectives on the Indo-Pacific region.

This week Mike and Jude are joined by Kathrin Hille to discuss Taiwan after the inauguration of Taiwanese President Lai, and what it means for the United States. Kathrine Hille is the Greater China Correspondent at the Financial Times, where she covers Taiwan, regional security, and hardware technology.

This week, Mike and Jude meet with Andrew Oros to discuss demographic shifts in Asia and how those shifts affect the geostrategic balance in the region. Andrew Oros is Professor of Political Science and International Studies, and the Director of the International Studies Program at Washington College.

This week, Mike and Jude meet with Amb. Julie Chung to discuss geopolitical competition in Sri Lanka and how it has developed in recent years. Ambassador Chung is the current U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and is a career member of the foreign service, having previously held senior positions throughout the Indo-Pacific and Western Hemisphere.

This week, Mike and Jude discuss the recent presidential legislative elections in Taiwan with Richard Bush, Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and the former chairman and managing director of the American Institute in Taiwan.

Mike and Jude are joined by Demetri Sevastopulo, US-China Correspondent at the Financial Times. Demetri discusses covering China as a member of the news media and of what it takes to break news on China in a competitive market. Jude, Mike, and Demetri then exchange views on US-China relations today, including recent bilateral diplomacy and evolving cross-Strait dynamics. Next, they turn to debate on the US-China relationship in Washington, exploring the nature and bounds of bipartisan “consensus” on China. They conclude by discussing how nations around the world are viewing the US election.

Mike is joined by Lisa Curtis, Senior Fellow and Director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. The conversation begins with a review of the contemporary and historical factors encouraging India and the United States to expand their partnership. Next, they examined the remaining hurdles for the relationship, including the recent Sikh assassination plots. They conclude by discussing the perception of democratic backsliding in India and the role of India’s foreign policy choices in shaping US-India relations.

Mike is joined by Dr. John Kunkel, Senior Economics Adviser at the United States Studies Centre. Dr. Kunkel has worked as an economist, speech writer, policy analyst, and adviser to government and industry executive and previously served as Chief of Staff to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. He has a PhD in Economics from the Australian National University and is the author of "America's Trade Policy Towards Japan: Demanding Results", a study of US-Japan trade relations from Reagan to Clinton.  The conversation begins by placing the Australian economy amid the shifting economic order of recent years. Mike and John note that the contemporary Australian debate has come late in adapting to these global economic changes, partially due to the country’s large resource base and overall economic resilience and flexibility. They discuss the unique position of Australia’s experience with globalization, which allowed it to avoid the worst of the domestic economic drawbacks that afflicted Europe and the United States. They then delve into the impact of ‘Bidenomics’ and US industrial policy on the economic debate in Australia, assessing how Australia is looking at these more protectionist policies to understand both the wrinkles and opportunities they present. After a discussion of evolving global economic dynamics and what a new American trade agenda should look like, they conclude by discussing an upcoming economic security conference in Australia, which is targeted at interpreting different international economic security policies, and tracking how these are transitioning over time.

Mike is joined by Dr. Joseph Chinyong Liow, the Tan Kah Kee Chair of Comparative and International Politics at Nanyang Technological University, where he is also a Research Advisor for the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.  The conversation begins with a review of the state of U.S.-China strategic competition in the aftermath of APEC 2023, and underscores regional discontent with the perceived lack of commitment from the United States to economic ties and international trade in the Indo-Pacific. They then turn to Singapore’s grand strategy that seeks to advance its interests amidst the discernible signs of escalating conflict among global powers and the ongoing transformation of the global order. Next they examine the new emphasis on ideological concerns in the foreign policy choices of states in the region. Finally, they conclude by discussing the conflict in Gaza and reactions in Singapore and the region.

Mike and Jude are joined by Evan Medeiros, Penner Family Chair in Asian Studies and the Cling Family Senior Fellow in US-China Relations at Georgetown University. He is also a Senior Advisor with The Asia Group and previously served for six years on the staff of the National Security Council as Director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia - and then as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Asia. He is editor and contributing author to the recent book Cold Rivals: The New Era of US-China Strategic Competition.  The conversation begins by evaluating the relative successes and failures of U.S. engagement toward China over previous decades and the state of the U.S.-China relationship. They review the field of China studies in the United States, exploring how it has adjusted in recent years in response to a changing China and evolving bilateral ties. After assessing the effects of Xi Jinping’s arrival on China’s political stage on bilateral relations and the current state of crisis communications between the U.S. and China, they conclude by forecasting the what the relationship will hold in the coming years and the challenges and pitfalls of managing strategic competition.

Mike and Jude are joined by Sergey Radchenko, the Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Sergey is an accomplished author, and has written extensively on the Cold War, nuclear history, and on Russian and Chinese foreign and security policies.  The conversation begins by delving into the nature of Beijing’s ties with Moscow, and how they have evolved from the Cold War. They explore points of divergence in the interests of China and Russia, and assess how both countries have reacted to frictions in the relationship over time. Next, they turn to the war in Ukraine, examining to what extent tightening Beijing-Moscow ties might have affected Putin’s ultimate decision to invade, and then discuss China’s strategic interests in how the conflict ends. Finally, they discuss ideological alignment between China and Russia, and how each state aims to shape the global order, before briefly considering the scope of Russia’s likely responses to escalating tensions between the U.S. and China in Asia.