China

  • Where the Space and AI Investment Frenzy May End Up: Lessons from Britain’s Railway Mania

    Elon Musk’s SpaceX went public on June 12, raising the equivalent of roughly $80 billion in a single IPO. Although its share price has eased somewhat since then, the company’s market capitalization still stood at about $1.8 trillion in mid-July, making it one of the seven to ten most valuable companies in the world. For comparison, the ten largest companies…

  • Japan should avoid unnecessarily provoking China－On the Occasion of the Renewal of the National Security Strategy

    Akio KawatoFormer Ambassador to Uzbekistan; Former DCM, Embassy of Japan in Russia . (Japan is currently conducting its once-every-few-years review of national security policy. As a result, the country’s three core strategic documents—the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy, and the Defense Buildup Program—are being revised. Recently, the Research Institute for Peace and Security (RIPS) published a collection of…

  • How Japan Realized Economic Development 1: The Myth of the “Japanese Model”

    （Until the rise of South Korea and, later, China, Japan’s economic development was a major focus of attention for developing countries and former socialist nations seeking economic reform. This was because Japan was the only non-white country to have achieved industrialization.Although Japan’s economy is not currently attracting much global attention, there will likely come a time when interest returns. In…

  • Will U.S.–North Korea Relations Start Moving Again? And What Should Japan Do?

    .　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Akio KAWATO On the 14th, almost at the same moment that President Trump announced a ceasefire agreement with Iran, he posted on social media an old photograph of himself standing beside Kim Jong Un. Perhaps he was sending a message: “Iran is done. North Korea is next.” . It is not a bad idea. If the historical grievances and accumulated…

  • Why Are Environmental Activists So Quiet in This Heat?

    It’s been scorching hot day after day. People say that if you fall on the pavement, you can suffer serious burns from the heat of the asphalt. Even the cicadas seem to have disappeared. These days, their larvae may be cooked underground before they ever emerge, and summer arrives with hardly a chirp. . Come to think of it, it’s…

  • From Network-Centric Warfare to AI Warfare

    In the 1990s, under the guidance of thinkers such as Andrew Marshall and Arthur Cebrowski, the U.S. military developed an advanced operational concept known as Network-Centric Warfare. The idea was to connect large reconnaissance and strike drones such as the Predator, cruise missiles, ground forces, and other military assets through communications networks. Information from the battlefield would be gathered and…

  • Gulf Security After the Iran War

    Akio KAWATO . Back in March, the American geopolitical analyst Andrew Korybko wrote something interesting. Citing a report by Reuters, he argued that the Gulf states — having been drawn into a war with Iran without prior consultation and having suffered both economic and military damage in the process — were beginning to question whether they should continue relying on…

  • The End of Gunboat Taiwan Policy

    Watching the U.S. Navy hesitate to push into the Strait of Hormuz during the current Iran conflict, one begins to wonder whether the old scenario—U.S. carrier strike groups rushing to the rescue in a “Taiwan contingency”—has already lost much of its credibility. That does not mean Taiwan is defenseless. Quite the contrary. Taiwan could potentially destroy a Chinese amphibious invasion…

  • After America: What Middle Powers Can Still Build

    Iran ceasefire talks are now beginning. Had the war continued, Iran’s retaliation might well have threatened the very survival of Gulf civilization itself, while also exposing the limits of U.S. military power and potentially bringing an end to America’s unipolar dominance. The ceasefire has, at least for now, bought everyone some breathing room. . Even so, this latest attack on…

  • Russia, cursing the dollar, cannot forego it

    Russia never misses a chance to square off against the United States. The dollar has long been one of its favorite targets. The message has been simple enough: why keep using the dollar, that tool of American imperialism? Why not settle trade in rubles or Chinese yuan instead, and show the Yankees that the world can move on without them?…