Asia Rising

East Asia’s security environment is changing rapidly. China’s power and confidence is rising, the US is increasingly introspective and uncertainty abounds about its power and purpose. India and Russia also clamour for influence. Regional powers are entering a period of growing rivalry and animosity, nationalism is an increasingly pervasive force, and prompted by a pervasive sense of strategic unce...

East Asia’s security environment is changing rapidly. China’s power and confidence is rising, the US is increasingly introspective and uncertainty abounds about its power and purpose. As a new equilibrium has yet to be established in the security order, how can middle ranking countries like Japan and Australia manage their interests? Guests: Professor Nick Bisley (Head of the School of Humanities...

For decades Australia’s security and economic policy has been developed based on an established regional order coming out of World War II, but we are now in turbulent times. Strong personalities and strained tensions means a change in the balance of power in the Asian region. Guest: Gareth Evans (Former politician and cabinet minister during the Hawke and Keating governments and foreign minister f...

Asia is at a dangerous moment. China is rising fast, and its regional ambitions are growing. Reckless North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un may be assembling more nuclear weapons, despite diplomatic efforts to eradicate his arsenal. Japan is building up its military, throwing off constitutional constraints imposed after World War II. The United States, for so long a stabilising presence in Asia, is be...

Waste in India is an important and visible issue, and the country is struggling to manage and process recycling. While a reported 60% of plastics are recycled the volume of garbage is immense, and much of the industry is informal. Guest: Assoc. Professor Assa Doron (College of Asia and the Pacific. Australian National University) Follow Assa Doron on Twitter: www.twitter.com/assadoron Follow La Tr...

For most defectors the decision to leave North Korea is never an easy one, and there are major difficulties in addressing the refugee crisis. Those crossing into China risk arrest and deportation, and the safety of those left behind is often in question. The status of these refugees is an international issue, and they face a challenge of accessing support and services once they reach safety. While...

Japan is one of many countries faced with an ageing population, but the problem is quite pronounced. The world's lowest fertility rate combined with a high life expectancy gives it the oldest mean age in the world of 46.1. A third of Japanese are aged over 60, and the country's population is falling. Guest: Associate Professor Nobuhiro Aizawa (Center for Asia-Pacific Future Studies at Kyushu Unive...

The mausoleum of Emperor Qin is a national treasure of China, and is known throughout the world for the army of terracotta warriors that guard his final resting place. The army of terracotta warriors is vast, and we are still discovering how they are made,and how best to preserve them. Guest: Xiuzhen Li (Senior Archaeologist, Emperor Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum)

On 12th June 2018 the world witnessed a peace summit between two long feuding leaders the United States president Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un. While the meeting was unprecedented but did it deliver anything worthwhile, or was it just a glorified photo-op? Guest: Dr Michael Cohen (Senior lecturer at the National Security College, Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU College...

In recent history the world witnessed a peace summit between the United States president Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim-Jong Un. While Trump cites his negotiating and business skills in bring Kim to the table, Kim would likely see it as an acknowledgement of the threat he poses with viable nuclear weapons. Does state acquisition of nuclear weapons lead to stability and peace or instabi...

Chinese philosophy has a long history stretching back more than two thousand years and covers schools of thought such as Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, and Buddhism. It has had a deep influence on the cultural and political development of the nation and people of China. Guest: Professor John Makeham (Director of the China Studies Research Centre, La Trobe University) Follow La Trobe Asia on Twitt...

China's economy has long been a story of success and growth, and being the second largest in the world has given it a position of power in the global economy. But could there be signs of an economic slowdown ahead of China? What steps would they have to take to safely navigate it? Guest: Professor Michael Pettis (Finance, Peking University) Follow La Trobe Asia on Twitter: www.twitter.com/latrobea...

India’s fast-growing population, and aspirations to join the throwaway prosperity of the developed world, generate vast quantities of waste, sewage and pollution. In attempting to mitigate these problems, India displays strengths and weaknesses, and the Clean India campaign has found successful techniques as well as discovering strategies that do not work. Some of India’s experiments hold lessons...

Asia’s elderly population is on track to reach a billion by 2050, and there are few governments prepared to meet this change, which will have wide social and economic consequences. Guest: Professor Thomas Klassen (Political Science at York University in Ontario, Canada). Follow La Trobe Asia on Twitter: www.twitter.com/latrobeasia Theme music: Asian Wonders by Butterfly Tea

The future of the Indo-Pacific region is being buffeted by an array of complex forces including the return of great power rivalry, rising illiberalism, and growing nationalism. Speakers: The Hon Julie Bishop MP (Minister for Foreign Affairs and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party) Professor Nick Bisley (Head of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University) Tony Walker (Vice-Cha...

Any visitor to China will be acutely aware of the amount of security, and nowhere is this more visible than the nation’s capital, Beijing. Guards are frequent, Cameras are plentiful, and the electronic data mining is extensive. Guest: Bill Birtles (China Correspondent, Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Follow Bill Birtles on Twitter: www.twitter.com/billbirtles Follow La Trobe Asia on Twitter:...

The Chinese education system has had its criticisms, but many argue that it delivers, at least in the larger cities such as Shanghai and Hong Kong. Students are pushed to study, with many students attending after-school tutoring, and qualities such as respect and dedication are held to a higher standard than that of western education systems. Guest: Lenora Chu (American journalist, author of 'Litt...

Indonesia is a sprawling nation of islands across south-east Asia, and two environmental concerns are significant – deforestation and rising sea levels. The deforestation rate is one of the highest in the world, and rising sea levels threaten much of their territory, including the capital, Jakarta. GUEST: Dr Dirk Tomsa (Senior Lecturer, Politics and Philosophy, La Trobe University). Follow La Trob...

The population of Asia is ageing rapidly. People are living longer than in the past, and coping with this problem requires thoughtful social security and balancing the interests of different generations. Although nations in the region each have unique characteristics, there are overall trends associated with population ageing, which raise implications that extend across most nations in Asia. Speak...

China operates on a scale that outclasses every other country, and are taking climate change seriously. As the world’s biggest polluter many would say that this is the way it should be. But does this give China an advantage and a global platform in green leadership? And are they making the most of it? GUEST: Dr Benjamin Habib (Senior Lecturer, Politics and International Relations, La Trobe Univers...

Japan faces a rapidly changing international environment. Asia is shifting from an era of peace and prosperity to one of contestation and great power rivalry. North Korea's nuclear ambitions are unsettling the region. Xi Jinping's China is more confident, assertive and nationalistic than ever and uncertainty lingers of the role of Japan's security partner, the United States. In response to these c...

North Korea is a country that can little afford a close examination of ecological impact. The environment exists and is protected as long as it is useful as a resource to the authoritative state. Despite this it holds an important place in the mythology of the country, and retaining elements of it is useful, as long as they can be exploited. GUEST: Dr Robert Winstanley-Chesters (Research Fellow, C...

India struggles with environmental imperatives. Its cities have the worst air pollution in the world, its iconic rivers are, in some places, literally dead and human development pressures will often override concerns of the natural environment. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made commitments to clean up India, but can he follow through with his promises? Are there more invested interests in push...

With China's emergence as a power of the first rank it has changed the Asian region and indeed the world. It has reordered established patterns of trade and investment, unsettled a longstanding balance of power in Asia, and brought old historical antagonisms to the surface. As President Xi Jinping consolidates his power, China increasingly presents a confident and at times assertive face to the wi...

From the turbulent 1960s until today, Hong Kong has been a city shaped by civil disobedience. The latest wave of protests in Hong Kong’s long history of public dissent culminated in the Occupy Central movement of 2014. What emerges from these grassroots movements is a unique Hong Kong identity, one shaped neither by Britain nor China. Guest: Antony Dapiran (author of City of Protest: A Recent Hist...