In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

In India, a country whose organising principle is that of a casteless and classless society, Barack Obama’s taking office as the 44th U.S. President has struck a resonating chord. Caste and class still dominate domestic politics here, and there is widespread recognition that America has again shown the way, and the increasing number of democratic countries pledged to multi-culturalism and plurality look to America to continue to set the example. Indians’ collective elation was expressed recently in a leading Indian newspaper: “…in the fact of Obama’s presidency alone, the souls of a people long oppressed find utterance, to use Jawaharlal Nehru’s words for India.” This American milestone is replete with promise, but equally fraught with dangers. We wait to see the way that this develops, now that Obama is in office. But the common journey of India and the United States to try to close the gaps within our societies, provides a new under-pinning for India-US relations for the future. The struggle to build a multi-cultural society of equals is an uphill one and there is much to learn from one other.

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The United States and Thailand share much in common at present: both have new governments; their leaders, Barack Obama and Abhisit Vijajajiva, are youthful, possess international backgrounds, and are leaders of their respective Democrat Parties. Both President Obama and Prime Minister Abhisit are trying to implement controversial stimulus packages to jump-start their economies. Their respective political futures depend on the success of these stimulus packages as both the U.S. and Thailand are forecast to experience negative economic growth in 2009.

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Earlier this month, I visited three capitals in Southeast Asia – Bangkok, Phnom Penh, and Hanoi – to present the latest in a series of reports on America’s Role in Asia, produced each U.S. presidential election year by The Asia Foundation.

The report was not easy to summarize. It contains chapters on no fewer than eight countries and sub-regions (Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan), plus seven additional chapters on key functional issues (trade, security, alliances, the environment, energy, terrorism, and regional architecture). All the chapters incorporate individual insights on trends in the region, as well as numerous detailed recommendations on policy. The report also reflects a few differences of opinion, both among the Asian participants and between the American and Asian contributors, especially with regard to questions involving regional architecture.

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Afghanistan began its transition to democracy in the early 2000s with great expectations. A member of the Afghan parliament tells the following story about constituents in his district: As the first presidential election approached, a homeowner was having his roof repaired. A storm was approaching, as well as the election. Nevertheless, the roofers decided to stop working for a day – and lose a valuable day’s pay – in order to travel home to their village to vote. Even though the homeowner worried about his house if the rains came, he supported his workers’ decision. Voting was more important than fixing his roof.

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Scott Snyder, Senior Associate in International Relations at The Asia Foundation, explores the transformation of the Sino–South Korean relationship since the early 1990s in his new book, China’s Rise and the Two Koreas: Politics, Economics, Security. Snyder considers the strategic significance of recent developments in China’s relationship with both North and South Korea and also assesses the likely consequences of those developments for U.S. and Japanese influence in the region. His detailed study lends important context to critical debates regarding China’s foreign policy, Northeast Asian security, and international relations more broadly.

Available in January 2009 from Lynne Rienner Publishers.

On Thursday, January 29, at Hotel Taj Mahal in New Delhi, leading U.S. and India diplomats, officials, CEOs, policy makers, and scholars are gathering to discuss the U.S.-India relationship and what South Asia wants from President Barack Obama’s new administration.

The ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, regional security and anti-terrorism efforts, Pakistan-India tensions, and Asia’s regional alliances, trade, and investment will top the agenda. Speakers will present America’s Role in Asia, a volume of foreign policy recommendations from top U.S. and Asia experts, supported and published by The Asia Foundation. They include Ambassador Karl F. Inderfurth, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs; Dr. C. Raja Mohan, professor at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang, Technological University in Singapore, and former member of India’s National Security Advisory Board; and Ambassador Rajendra Abhyankar, former Indian Ambassador to the EU, Belgium and Luxemburg, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Syria, and Cyprus, and Asia Foundation Director of India Programs.

Read a press release from the event, including specific policy recommendations for U.S.-India relations.

President Barack Obama took the oath of office this week and acknowledged the complex roster of foreign policy challenges that will land on his desk in the Oval Office. We at The Asia Foundation are asking what America’s role in Asia will be. We asked that question over the past year in a series of high-level, closed door meetings with the world’s top Asian and American policy experts. America’s Role in Asia: Asian and American Views is a volume of the concrete, candid recommendations that came out of those meetings. The American co-chairs of the project, Michael H. Armacost and Stapleton J. Roy, laid it out this way in their overview:

“What then should be the key features of a plausible U.S. strategy toward Asia? The starting point must be a willingness to accord Asia the attention its intrinsic importance to us demands.

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Historically, Afghan women have always been marginalised and accorded subordinate status. The position of women in the family and society has been shaped by many factors and there are strong cultural and historical roots of gender discrimination. Afghanistan is a multi-ethnic and traditional society that has been governed along tribal lines and by a weak central state. In addition, the long years of war and violence in the country, and the resulting unstable political and economic situation, have had a particularly severe impact on women. There were some attempts to introduce reforms but these were often met by strong tribal and religious opposition and resistance from conservative patriarchal forces, and later undermined during the civil war in the early 1990s when Mujahideen leaders fought for control. The rights of women were eroded even further when the Taliban came into power in 1996.

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On a cold and gray day last December, a group of women huddled together in the Hoa Sua restaurant in Hanoi for the last lunch before they departed for the flight that would take them back to their home province of Can Tho, located in the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam. This was no simple lunch; the women critically examined the food, commented on the service, and eyed the table’s setting as well as the restaurant’s décor. Gracefully and patiently answering their questions was Ms. Pham Thi Vy, the founding member cum director of the Hoa Sua School, which runs the Hoa Sua restaurant along with a number of other successful businesses in Hanoi. The amazing thing about the Hoa Sua School is that it is a vocational training school for disadvantaged youth that has successfully met the needs of the market for fifteen years.

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On January 9, 2009, the President of Timor-Leste’s National Parliament, Fernando La Sama de Araujo, officially inaugurated the Parliamentary Research Center. The Center will be staffed with eight Timorese researchers who will work to develop creative approaches to policy analysis, anticipate legislative needs, and respond to specific requests from legislators in a timely and impartial manner. The objectives of the Center, which is located within the National Parliament, are to maintain parliamentary library resources and IT infrastructure, to strengthen legislative research functions, and to preserve official documents.

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