In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

When President Obama makes his first visit to China next week, he will meet a Chinese leadership with growing confidence in international affairs and observe an economy that is rapidly recovering from the global recession. At the same time, he will witness a country whose legal and political landscape is replete with contradictory trends and [...]

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On November 15, after the APEC Leaders meeting, President Barack Obama will meet with the leaders of all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for the first-ever U.S.-ASEAN summit. For the past 12 years, both the Clinton and Bush administrations resisted calls for a U.S.-ASEAN summit over concern that because Burma [...]

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President Obama will also visit Korea on this trip against a backdrop of tensions between North and South Korea after a naval skirmish and just-announced plans to send special envoy Stephen Bosworth to Pyongyang in the near future. On the heels of the joint vision statement between South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak and President Obama [...]

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From 2002 to 2006, The Asia Foundation implemented a series of exchanges for 80 promising young professionals from Southeast Asia and the United States to help develop a better understanding of one another’s region. This program was initiated by the Foundation because of concern that fewer Americans had been involved with Southeast Asia since the [...]

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Last week, USAID, Radiohead, and MTV EXIT announced that their music video collaboration had received the prestigious 2009 Asia-Pacific Child Rights Award. The USAID-MTV EXIT (End EXploitation and Trafficking) campaign in partnership with influential UK-rock band Radiohead produced the innovative music video for their song “All I Need” off the album In Rainbows. All MTV [...]

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The Pacific Islands each have a unique culture but share a common uniting factor – geography has dictated the islands as one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world. According to a U.S. Department of State Travel Alert, the South Pacific region experiences approximately nine tropical cyclones each season, about half of which reach [...]

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Late last month, suicide attacks hit Pakistan’s International Islamic University in relatively peaceful Islamabad, killing at least six people – another violent event that continues to pull the capital further into the fray. In even less secure areas, such as Pakistan’s Swat Valley in the North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan, Pakistan’s largest province, such targeted [...]

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Today, November 4, the Foundation’s office in Seoul opened a seminar there to assess prospects for expanding the U.S.-ROK alliance into new areas of cooperation. Three presentations focused on international peacekeeping, overseas development assistance, and maritime security.

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On Thursday, November 5, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace will host and stream live a discussion on President Obama’s trip to Asia next week. Asia Foundation Trustee Douglas Paal, who is Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, will discuss President Obama’s trip with Michael Pettis, a senior associate in [...]

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In the rugged mountains of Northern Thailand, in a village called Morwakee, there are three classrooms and 62 students. None of the students had ever seen a children’s book. When we invited people from across the globe to “Choose a Book, Change a Life,” by selecting their favorite storybook for each of the students in [...]

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