Axel Berkofsky
The gloves are off. Japan would – in the case of an unprovoked Chinese attack against Taiwan – get involved defending Taiwan militarily, showcasing that there is no scenario in which Japan could...
China is the elephant in the (Asian) room. Its resolute reaction to the visit of US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to Taipei, its clear will to 're-unify' Mainland China with Taiwan, together with...
While the war in Ukraine is a game changer for international and in particular European security, China appears to be marching on. And, in some ways, it is true. Since Xi Jinping took power in 2012,...
The gloves are off. There is very little disagreement among (non-Chinese) scholars and analysts that China is the elephant in the room in the Indo-Pacific. China is challenging and indeed changing...
The new US administration has made the Indo-Pacific front and centre of its foreign policy.
On April 16 the Council of the European Union issued its ‘Conclusions on an EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.’ The EU policy paper announced a “meaningful European naval presence in...
The EU-Japan Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) was signed and adopted in July 2018 in parallel with the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).[1] For now, the agreement is only...
Germany got its way. Well, German business with business interests in China did. The German EU Council Presidency ended with a big bang on December 30, when the EU and China signed their long-awaited...
In 2020, the way we define “insecurity” has drastically changed. Insecurity can now also be invisible and all around us, in the shape of a virus that disrupts people’s lives, upends the economy,...
After Abe Shinzo announced his early retirement at the end of August, Japan has had to come to terms with a significant structural change on top of all the challenges left by the Covid-19 pandemic....
After almost eight years as Prime Minister, Abe Shinzo retired. On 16 September the national Diet (Japan’s parliament) nominated Suga Yoshihide as his successor. Since Abe announced his intention to...
Japan’s longest-serving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has resigned. Officially because of reasons related to his health but unofficially and in reality there is probably much more than meets the eye. Abe...