Opinions and essays

Our regular guests contribute commentaries, analyses and opinion pieces on various topics of interest related to New Zealand's role and engagement in the Asia-Pacific region.

If you would like to suggest a topic or send your response to any of the articles below, contact Dr Andrew Butcher at abutcher@asianz.org.nz

New Zealand's relations with Asia

• Projecting our voice - based on a study by the New Zealand National Forum of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP:NZ), this report examines the changing power balances within Asia, how regional organisations are responding, and how New Zealand might best respond to these changes.
• A strategy for Asia? - In this opinion piece, Asia:NZ executive director Dr Richard Grant lays out his thoughts on strategic issues for New Zealand prompted by the rise of Asia and reflects on why the Foundation's core mission is more valid now than ever before.
• New Zealand and Australia: Asian decoupling - Dr Malcolm Cook is the Program Director for East Asia at the Lowy Institute in Sydney. This opinion piece was published in the Dominion Post on 1 June 2010.
• New Zealand's place in Asia - Asia:NZ Executive Director Dr Richard Grant takes stock of the changing geo-political climate and discusses why its relationship with Asia is becoming the determinant of New Zealand's long-term security and economic growth.
• Rethinking immigration - Paul Spoonley, Massey University

Asia region

• The 2011 ASEAN ministerial and related meetings - Former ASEAN secretary-general Rodolfo C Severino comments on this year's meetings
• Regional architecture: from monuments to open source - Professor Gary Hawke analyses the momentum of Asia-Pacific regional integration in light of the East Asia Summit, Hanoi 2010
• Responding to non-traditional security challenges in Asia - Mely Caballero-Anthony is Associate Professor at the RSIS in Singapore
• Architectural momentum in Asia and the Pacific - Hadi Soesastro, CSIS, Jakarta (link to external site)
• Developing regional security architecture in the Asia-Pacific - Dr Thomas S. Wilkins, Lecturer at the Center for International Security Studies,  University of Sydney
• The 8th Shangri-La Dialogue - Dr Mark G. Rolls
• Australian defence in the Asia-Pacific century - Professor Hugh White, Lowy Institute of International Policy, Sydney
• Lowy Institute urges major overhaul of Australia's diplomatic network - Alex Duchen, Lowy Institute of International Policy, Sydney
• US foreign policy and Asia - Terence O'Brien, Centre for Strategic Studies
• Asia and the current crisis - Professor Gary Hawke, Senior Fellow New Zealand Institute of Economic Research, former Chair of the New Zealand Committee of PECC

Myanmar

• New government brings little progress - an update on the situation in Myanmar (Burma) since the 2010 elections

China

• US-China ties crucial for Asia's security - We report on the visit to Wellington by Edward Carr, The Economist foreign editor, October 2010

• Tribute to a New Zealand-China trade pioneer - Victor Percival who was the last surviving foreigner to have attended the Canton Trade Fair since its beginnings in the 1950s, has died.

• Australia's real China problem - Dr Robert Ayson is currently Senior Fellow in the Australian National University’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre. In this article he discusses Australia's increasing fraught relationship with China.

• China: What responsibilities come with rising power status? In this article, Professor Yongjin Zhang, examines the different perceptions of the European Union, the United States and China itself in relation to the rising Asian power’s potential new role and responsibility in the global system.

India

• Verdict India 2009: Congress Rises with its Heir - Sourabh Gupta, Samuels International Associates, Washington DC

Japan

• US Marines from Okinawa to Guam: Strategic Implications for Japan -  The author, Prof Matake Kamiya, currently Professor of International Relations at the National Defense Academy of Japan and formerly an Asia 2000 Foundation Distinguished Research Fellow, discusses recent relocations of the US military in the Pacific region.

• Japan-Australia relations: The multi and the mini - Dr Malcolm Cook of Australia's Lowy Institute on the emergence of new 'mini-lateral' groupings such as the G20