Letter from the Editors

Welcome to the October 2020 issue of The Diplomat Magazine.

Not everything truly is what it seems to be on the surface – not in life and certainly not in geopolitics. From the state of U.S. alliances in Asia to the independence of Fiji some 50 years ago, from the complexities of peace negotiations in Myanmar to the prime minister’s seat in Pakistan, what we see on the outside doesn’t tell the full story.

In our cover story, Abraham M. Denmark and Shihoko Goto, the director and deputy director, respectively, of the Asia Program at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., look at the state of U.S. alliances in Asia as the Trump administration’s first term nears its end. “President Trump’s policies have rattled U.S. alliances in East Asia to a degree unseen for more than 40 years,” they write. But at the same time, those alliances have proven their resilience amid major challenges. The situation can still be turned to the United States’ advantage, but it will take more alignment not only on security but on trade and economic issues, as well as a concerted effort at regional diplomacy.

Next, Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C., delves into China’s complex role in Myanmar’s never-ending peace process. In recent years, Beijing has stepped up its involvement as a mediator between Myanmar’s government and armed ethnic organizations based near the China-Myanmar border. But that doesn’t mean Beijing is the opportunistic spoiler some have portrayed. “Ultimately,” Sun writes, “the key to peace in Myanmar is in Burmese, not Chinese hands.”

Then we turn our attention to Pakistan, where Prime Minister Imran Khan has been under pressure – domestically and internationally – but the state’s all-powerful military, Pakistani-American columnist Mohammad Taqi argues, is unwilling to jettison him. “For all practical purposes it is already impossible to tell where the military’s rule ends and Khan’s begins,” Taqi writes. He charts how the Pakistani government is at its core a hybrid regime – military rule masquerading as a democracy. But can the disguise hold up in the face of gathering opposition, economic collapse, and a devastating pandemic?

Finally, in marking the 50th anniversary of Fiji’s independence, Dr. Stewart Firth writes that Fiji’s long-running split along lines of racial identity is at the center of the country’s tortured politics. Firth, a research fellow at Australian National University, recounts that Fiji’s attainment of independence from the British on October 10, 1970, didn’t resemble movements toward independence seen elsewhere in the region. Fiji’s population was, and in many ways continues to be, split between indigenous Fijians and Fijians of Indian heritage. The division has driven a series of coups and underscores lasting political tumult in the country.

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