Asia

Having won the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership election on October 4, Sanae Takaichi is set to be Japan’s fifth prime minister in as many years. As the first female leader of the party that has dominated Japanese politics...

When Beijing dispatched a relatively unknown rear admiral from its National Defense University to the 2025 Shangri-La Dialogue, bypassing its own defense minister and forfeiting its plenary address, it did more than snub Asia’s premier security forum. It signaled...

Since President Lai Ching-te was inaugurated in May 2024, Taiwan’s domestic politics have been in relative turmoil. Large-scale protests, the incarceration of Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) leader Ko Wen-je on corruption charges, and an unprecedented recall election targeting thirty-one...

The multi-state dispute in the South China Sea has enveloped the region for decades, with no signs of abating. Much of the media attention on the region has recently focused on coercion and aggression conducted by the People’s Republic...

Introduction While international attention often centers on China’s latest foundation models or its constrained access to high-end artificial intelligence (AI) chips, these headlines obscure the broader architecture of China’s AI strategy. China is pursuing a dual-track approach that combines...

Cyber operations are now a defining feature of modern warfare, as the war in Ukraine has demonstrated—and China is taking note. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has served as a testing ground for the integration of emerging technologies...

For a document intended to carefully outline relations with a key US partner while navigating a region’s complex history and geopolitical realities, eight pages seem brief. Enacted in 1979 in response to the US switch in recognition from the...

Introduction If there was ever any doubt, Taiwan’s July 26 “Great Recall” election makes one thing clear: Taiwanese politics are deeply divided. For many in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), a vote to recall one of twenty-four Kuomintang (KMT)...

This report is published in collaboration with the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), also available on their website.  Introduction The 2024 Taiwan presidential elections marked a historic third consecutive win for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)—the first time a party...

Earlier this summer, in June 2025, President Lai Ching-te delivered the first of his “Ten Lectures on National Unity,” their goal being “to unite the people, political parties, and the nation as a whole, to advance Taiwan’s progress while...