Letter From the Editors

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the December 2017 issue of The Diplomat Magazine.

This month’s issue highlights the impact of people on policies, and vice versa. In Uzbekistan and China, the personalities and proclivities of new leaders will help shape the future of not only their respective countries, but their regions. Meanwhile, though it can be easily overlooked in academic discourse, each policy decision will have a real-world impact on people’s lives, whether that means the security and safety of Japan’s citizens or the traditions and culture of India’s indigenous tribes.

Central Asia is perhaps the world’s most disconnected and dis-integrated region, making recent developments indicating a slow return to connectivity all the more intriguing. In this month’s cover story, Luca Anceschi, a lecturer in Central Asian Studies at the University of Glasgow, explains the death of regional connectivity in the early 2000s and outlines recent efforts – sparked by a change in regime in Uzbekistan – to rebuild regional connectivity from within. But such efforts are not without setbacks or risks.

Next, Matthias Stepan, head of the research program on Chinese public policy at the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS), analyzes the impact of China’s new leadership on policy decisions and priorities. The recent 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party elevated five new members to the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee. Stepan looks at each new face in turn to decipher clues about where China is heading in its self-proclaimed “new era.”

As North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear development move forward in parallel, Japan has tough defense choices to make. J. Berkshire Miller explains in his article that the Japanese security establishment has to wrestle with the North Korean threat as well as other regional challenges – namely China – at a time of tight budgets and in light of non-traditional rhetoric from its ally in Washington.

In our final lead, Sudha Ramachandran, a journalist based in Bangalore, India, catalogues the disastrous impact economic and security policies can have on locals – in this case, the indigenous tribes living on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. These islands are critical to India’s security as well as a magnet for tourists, but development comes with a heavy cost for the ever-dwindling tribes that have called these islands home for thousands of years.

We hope you enjoy these stories and the many others awaiting you in the following pages.

Sincerely,

Catherine Putz and Shannon Tiezzi