PUBLICATIONS BY Walter Lohman
Research
Commentary
Media Appearances
2009 Research
November 10, 2009
A Meaningful Agenda for President Obama's Meeting with Southeast Asian Leaders
By Walter Lohman
(WebMemo #2694)
When he meets with ASEAN leaders this week, President Obama needs to make substantive progress on several pressing issues: free trade, Burma, and the rise of China.
July 23, 2009
U.S. Policy Regarding Burma: Making Virtue of Necessity
By Walter Lohman
(WebMemo #2560)
Despite the Obama Administration's desire to "engage" recalcitrant, repressive regimes, three factors--the weight of circumstances, the force of law, and solid American values--dictate that current U.S. policy toward Burma differs little from that of the Bush Administration.
July 20, 2009
Time for the Administration to Turn to Substance in Southeast Asia
By Walter Lohman
(WebMemo #2551)
In the next couple of weeks, the Obama Administration will be engaged in high-level diplomacy with America’s treaty allies and friends in Southeast Asia.
May 15, 2009
Australia Surveys Asia's Future
By Eric Sayers and Walter Lohman
(WebMemo #2449)
The clarity Australia has provided with Force 2030 should serve as both a warning and a guidepost for America's future commitments to the region.
April 10, 2009
Indonesian President Yudhoyono's Big Decision
By Walter Lohman
(WebMemo #2393)
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is a clear winner in his country’s April 9, 2009 parliamentary elections. Yet he will need to form a governing coalition. The most important part of the coalition will be his choice of a vice presidential running mate.
February 26, 2009
Spratly Islands: The Challenge to U.S. Leadership in the South China Sea
By Walter Lohman
(WebMemo #2313)
On the eve of the annual ASEAN summit this week, an old issue has resurfaced: conflicting claims over the Spratly Islands.
February 18, 2009
Secretary Clinton's Asia Trip: Getting China Right
By Stephen Yates and Walter Lohman
(WebMemo #2301)
The new Administration should clearly communicate the kind of relationship it seeks from China, what it expects in return, and what it is prepared to deliver, both positive and negative.
February 16, 2009
Secretary Clinton's Asia Trip: Indonesia's Role in the Spotlight
By Walter Lohman
(WebMemo #2294)
Indonesia is much more than a "Muslim country." It is a developing democracy under assault from a determined Islamist minority.
February 06, 2009
In Defense of Thailand's Democracy
By Walter Lohman
(WebMemo #2279)
One of America’s two treaty allies in Southeast Asia turned the page on a period of intense political instability. America should celebrate and use this occasion to reinforce the relationship between the two nations.
January 06, 2009
Securing U.S. Objectives in North Korea
By Bruce Klingner and Walter Lohman
(Special Report #37)
President-elect Obama, during the campaign you stressed the need for "sustained, direct, and aggressive diplomacy" with North Korea in order to achieve "the complete and verifiable elimination of all of North Korea's nuclear weapons programs, as well as its past proliferation activities, including with Syria." When North Korea provided data on its nuclear weapons programs, you stated that...
2008 Research
December 31, 2008
Indonesian President's Praise of Natsir Raises Questions
By Walter Lohman
(WebMemo #2181)
Indonesian President Bambang Susilo Yudhoyono designated M. Natsir a national hero with a speech in the Indonesian province of West Sumatra. But what did the president intend by conferring essentially favored son status on this very learned—and by all accounts polite and unassuming—Islamist?
December 16, 2008
Stiffening Pakistan's Resolve Against Terrorism
By Lisa Curtis and Walter Lohman
(Special Report #34)
President-elect Obama, developing an effective policy toward Pakistan will be one of the most immediate challenges facing your Administration.
November 09, 2008
Stand by Indonesia in its Struggle for a Just and Civilized Humanity
By Walter Lohman
(WebMemo #2126)
The executions of the 2002 Bali Bombers are a grim milestone in Indonesia’s struggle against extremism and terrorism. The decision to impose capital punishment was not easily made. In a democratic country where terrorists cloak themselves in the religious values of the Islamic majority, all but the strongest politicians are tempted to accommodate extremism. But Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono—often criticized for indecisiveness—and the Indonesian justice system—frequently characterized as weak—held firm.
For holding firm in its fight, Indonesia deserves American support
July 17, 2008
Indonesia Holds Up ASEAN Charter Ratification for Burmese People
By Walter Lohman
(WebMemo #1999)
Legislators in Indonesia are holding out not for political or personal gain but to fight for the rights of one of their neighbors. Their most pressing concern is also ASEAN’s most embarrassing problem: Burma.
April 28, 2008
Playing with Fire in Indonesia
By Walter Lohman
(WebMemo #1902)
Indonesia is an extraordinarily resilient society. Its tolerant culture, religious traditions, and diversity cannot be easily subverted. Ample proof resides in what has proven a successful, centuries-long struggle with Islamism and its precursors—a triumph enshrined today in Indonesia’s 10-year-old democracy. But Indonesia’s democracy is more than a shrine. It is the battlefield in a continuing struggle of ideas.
March 14, 2008
Off the Rails in the Philippines
By Walter Lohman
(WebMemo #1856)
A scandal in the Philippines has the potential to become a constitutional crisis.
January 29, 2008
Enabling ASEAN's Economic Vision
By Walter Lohman and Anthony B. Kim
(Backgrounder #2101)
Enhancing economic freedom is at the heart of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' economic vision. By demonstrating serious, sustained interest in ASEAN's economic life, the U.S. can ensure that its advice and concerns are taken into account. The U.S. can also engage at the technical level in a way that enables the group to meet its objectives.
January 29, 2008
Executive Summary: Enabling ASEAN's Economic Vision
By Walter Lohman and Anthony B. Kim
(Executive Summary #2101)
Executive Summary: Enhancing economic freedom is at the heart of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' economic vision. By demonstrating serious, sustained interest in ASEAN's economic life, the U.S. can ensure that its advice and concerns are taken into account. The U.S. can also engage at the technical level in a way that enables the group to meet its objectives.
2007 Research
September 28, 2007
Crisis in Burma: Choosing Our Friends
By Walter Lohman
(WebMemo #1649)
The United States needs to rely less on China and more on its democratic friends in the region.
July 31, 2007
Congress Should Extend Trade Preferences to Asia's Poorest
By Daniella Markheim and Walter Lohman
(WebMemo #1578)
Congress should act this year to extend the benefits of lowered tariffs to Asia's poorest countries.
July 10, 2007
It May Be Time for Asia to Position for the Next Administration
By Walter Lohman
(WebMemo #1545)
Recent decisions by the Bush Administration have increased the perception among friends and allies in East Asia of declining U.S. commitment to the region.
June 08, 2007
Adjusting to the Reality of a Democratic Indonesia
By Walter Lohman
(WebMemo #1495)
House appropriators have charted a strikingly unwise course in slashing and conditioning military assistance to Indonesia. Indonesia is a natural partner for the United States and the two countries share many fundamental interests in the region.
May 10, 2007
The Trap of China-ASEAN Military Cooperation
By Walter Lohman
(WebMemo #1451)
A proposed ASEAN-China military partnership could divide Asia into rival blocs, aligning the democracies of America, Japan, and Australia on one side, and China and ASEAN on the other.
March 20, 2007
Guidelines for U.S. Policy in Southeast Asia
By Walter Lohman
(Backgrounder #2017)
Southeast Asia is vital to U.S. political, economic, and security interests. Ensuring that the region remains strong, independent, and outward-looking is therefore in the best interests of both the United States and the nations of Southeast Asia. U.S. foreign policy should reflect the importance of the U.S.–ASEAN relationship and be continually adjusted to meet these aims.
2006 Research
December 22, 2006
Democracy Is a Necessary Hedge Against Crisis in Thailand
By Walter Lohman
(WebMemo #1292)
Bad government policy sends stock markets tumbling. Restoring democracy is the only way to cut the risk of more government mishaps.
2009 Commentary
August 28, 2009
Playing Into the Hands of Burma's Junta
By Walter Lohman
In Wednesday's New York Times, Senator Jim Webb made his case for a new American policy on Burma. For someone so closely identified with opposition to sanctions, one would expect his alternative to be much bolder. After so much build up, is this it?
July 21, 2009
Maintaining stability
By Walter Lohman and Rupert Hammond-Chambers
China and Taiwan are getting along much better these days. Considering the stake the United States has in their relationship, that's good news.
But this is no time to let down our guard, as Chinese officials have been urging.
June 26, 2009
Principled American leadership for Asia
By Kim Holmes and Walter Lohman
At his June 10 confirmation hearing, Kurt Campbell said some encouraging things about the administration's Asia policy. President Obama's nominee for assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs emphasized America's enduring commitment to the Pacific and the centrality of our treaty allies. And only in this context did he address the U.S. relationship with China.
March 12, 2009
Staring Down Chinese Diplomacy
By Walter Lohman
Asia's corridors of power are full of pragmatists. But unlike in Washington, where realism has now come to include new post-sovereignty goals, realism in Asia is still about sovereignty -- protecting it and extending it.
2008 Commentary
November 13, 2008
Ideal free-trade candidate
By Walter Lohman and Rupert Hammond-Chambers
Regrettably, trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea are stalled. But that doesn't mean President-elect Barack Obama should get out of the free-trade business.
October 14, 2008
The Ideal Candidate for Free Trade
By Walter Lohman and Rupert Hammond-Chambers
New trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea have stalled. But that doesn’t mean President Bush and Congress should get out of the free-trade business.
August 18, 2008
The threat of complacency, the hope of faith
By Walter Lohman
Long-time observers of Indonesia's politics and economy are a hardy, stubbornly optimistic crowd. That's because we've seen through too many dire predictions of collapse, disintegration and chaos to believe the scares.
June 19, 2008
Who'll lead in Asia?
By Walter Lohman
Occasionally, a simple remark reveals far more about the state of American leadership than any speech, policy statement or white paper. During an official visit to Beijing in late May by Lee Myung-bak, the new South Korean president and stalwart American friend, China's foreign ministry declared the U.S.-South Korea alliance a "historical relic."
June 10, 2008
Today's world, the reality of values
By Walter Lohman
In The Post-American World, Fareed Zakaria offers American policy makers an important perspective. He aims to illuminate the new world that U.S. foreign policy must navigate, and here, he is largely on target. His grand conclusions, however, miss the mark.
2007 Commentary
November 22, 2007
Building a Solution for Burma
By Walter Lohman
The nature of the news cycle and well-meant wishful thinking lends itself to short memories -- as the situation in Burma illustrates.
June 19, 2007
Adjusting to the Reality of a Newly Democratic Indonesia
By Walter Lohman
In Washington, inertia often carries the day on even the most anachronistic policy ideas. Congress proved this axiom on June 5 when appropriators in the House of Representatives slashed and conditioned the Administration's request to provide military assistance to Indonesia.
January 30, 2007
U.S. should support initiatives to build East Asia community
By Walter Lohman
The conversation in East Asia over economic community continued at the ASEAN annual meetings two weeks ago. It is a vitally important discussion, and the United States needs to keep close tabs on it. That doesn't mean, however, that for each new pronouncement regarding it, the United States must post a response.
January 15, 2007
U.S. joins the game
By Walter Lohman
The leaders of Southeast Asia last week opened their annual meetings. Although it involves 10 heads of government, including two U.S. treaty allies, encompasses a $700 billion economy, and represents half a billion people, the event goes mostly unnoticed in Washington, D.C.
November 20, 2009
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