In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

When President Obama made his first post-election international trip last month to Southeast Asia, his message was clear: as Asia becomes the driver of global politics in the coming decades, the U.S. is strategically reorienting its presence in the region. But the U.S. is not the only one that recognizes a need for reorientation – Asia itself does too.

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While the Asian Century is most often used to describe the global shift of economic power to Asia, Asia’s rise is also significant in the area of development cooperation. Asian countries have emerged as game changers in the aid arena, challenging traditional notions of aid, reshaping global aid architecture…

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The DPRK (North Korea) National Defense Commission responded with predictable bravado (“DPRK NDC Reiterates Its Stand to Fight It Out against U.S. and S. Korean Regime”) to Sunday’s announcement by the government of the Republic of Korea (ROK) that it had secured U.S. agreement…

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Tens of thousands are gathering in Brazil this week for the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), which is expected to be the largest event in the history of the United Nations. World leaders will discuss the advances that have been made over the past two decades…

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North Korea’s failed rocket launch accomplished the rarest of feats. The regime managed to simultaneously outrage the world and embarrass itself at the same time. Unfortunately, this increases the likelihood that Pyongyang will undertake a nuclear test…

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The most lasting impression of my first trip to South Asia is the empowered women I met at every turn. Asia’s economic future depends less on finding a new technology or development strategy and more on expanding opportunities for women.

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On March 20 in Washington, The Asia Foundation hosted the launch for “The US-South Korea Alliance: Meeting New Security Challenges” written by preeminent Korea expert Scott Snyder. A fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and former director of The Asia Foundation’s Center for U.S.-Korea Policy, Snyder writes: “South Korea’s contributions to and influence on [...]

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On March 5-7, The Asia Foundation and the Korea Development Institute will bring together over 30 development experts from more than 10 countries in Delhi for the fifth round of the Asian Approaches to Development Cooperation Dialogue series. Participants from emerging economies and traditional donors, as well as recipient countries from Asia, will discuss how [...]

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Weeks into his new post, In Asia editor Alma Freeman spoke with The Asia Foundation’s new Korea country representative, Peter Beck, from Seoul for his insight on South Korea’s domestic politics, North Korea’s transition, Seoul’s new mayor, the contentious National Security Law, and more.

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In 2011, Asia grappled with a host of devastating shocks, both natural and man-made. As challenging and economically harsh as they have been, they have provided an opportunity for Asia’s emerging economies to dramatically assert their economic resilience and regional influence.

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