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The Asia-Pacific in 2018: What to Expect
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The Asia-Pacific in 2018: What to Expect

The Diplomat looks at the trends to watch across the region in the coming year.

By Yuki Tatsumi, Elaine Ramirez, Shannon Tiezzi, Charlotte Gao, Natalie Sambhi, Kaewkamol Pitakdumrongkit, Priyanka Borpujari, Mina Sohail, Courtney Cooper, Catherine Putz, Bonnie Glaser and Sara Hsu

In 2017, Washington put “America First” and Pyongyang rattled the nerves of the entire globe with its relentless missile and nuclear tests. Beijing steadily pursued its new-age resurrection of the Silk Road across Asia, by land and by sea, and reanointed its mastermind, Xi Jinping, as “core leader.” India faced off with China on a remote triangle of land in the Himalayas and relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan continued to fester. ASEAN celebrated 50 years in 2017, marking an important milestone, but challenges remain to the bloc’s consensus-driven cooperative mandate.

Carrying over all of the tension and uncertainty left by 2017, with less of 2016’s inertia to maintain the status quo, what will 2018 hold?

Each January, we ask The Diplomat’s authors and a few guests to lay out what to watch for in the next 12 months. This isn’t a game of forecasting the future, but rather the identification of underlying trends and outlining of expectations by astute regional observers. Below, our authors provide an overview of what to watch for in the Asia-Pacific in 2018. 

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The Authors

Yuki Tatsumi is Director of the Japan Program at the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C and writes for The Diplomat’s Japan section.

Elaine Ramirez is a freelance journalist based in Seoul.

Shannon Tiezzi is Editor-in-Chief of The Diplomat.

Charlotte Gao writes for The Diplomat’s China Power section.

Natalie Sambhi is a Research Fellow at the Perth USAsia Centre where she publishes on Indonesian defence policy and Southeast Asian security. She is currently a PhD student at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, focussing on Indonesian military history.

Kaewkamol Pitakdumrongkit is Deputy Head & Assistant Professor at the Centre for Multilateralism Studies, at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Priyanka Borpujari is an Indian journalist and writes for The Diplomat’s South Asia section.

Mina Sohail is a freelance journalist based in Islamabad.

Courtney Cooper is an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a position being sponsored by the U.S. government. All statements of fact or analysis are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the government.

Catherine Putz is Managing Editor at The Diplomat.

Bonnie Glaser is a senior adviser for Asia and the director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Sara Hsu is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the State University of New York at New Paltz.

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