North and South Korea warships exchange fire
North and South Korean warships exchanged fire along a disputed sea border area off the west coast of the Korean Peninsular on Tuesday, just days before US President Barack Obama was due to embark on a crucial tour of Asia. Click here for relevant Heritage

Obama's Afghan Plan: About 40K More Troops
Tonight, after months of conferences with top advisors, President Obama has settled on a new strategy for Afghanistan. CBS News correspondent David Martin reports that the president will send a lot more troops and plans to keep a large force there, long term. Click here for relevant Heritage research

U.S. Lowers Goals for Asia Trip
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama jets to Asia on Thursday for a four-nation swing that White House officials say will highlight the centrality of the continent to U.S. economic health and security. Click here for relevant Heritage research

This Week's News Updates: Cybersecurity, Public Diplomacy, Missile Defense

Issue In Depth

Time for Leadership in Asia

This week, President Obama will leave for his first trip to Asia. These meetings should strengthen our alliances in the region. He will begin his trip with a stop in Tokyo, Japan where attention to the new government’s shift in policies is pertinent, as eyes are on the Democratic Party of Japan altering international security responsibilities in the U.S.-Japan alliance. He will then stop in both Beijing and Shanghai, China where economic cooperation regarding the global financial crisis will be on the agenda. An essential stop in Singapore will allow President Obama his first appearance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, and the first U.S-ASEAN leaders meeting, followed by his last stop in Seoul, South Korea. This will be his opportunity to reinforce the U.S.-South Korea alliance by addressing the North Korea nuclear issue. With all of these significant issues on the table, the president cannot afford any missteps during his visit.


Recent Research
The Heritage Foundation: Taiwan's Economy Needs More Than Cooperation with China: Perhaps the most prominent reaction to progress in trade and investment talks between China and Taiwan is that the dialogue is long overdue. From Taiwan's perspective, such an assessment turns out to be exactly right--cross-straits economic liberalization is overdue. In pure economic terms, it would have been far better for Taiwan if liberalization had occurred 15 or so years ago. Possible gains from cross-straits economic liberalization are just not what they used to be.

The Heritage Foundation: Japan's Security Policy: Navigating the Troubled Waters Ahead: The U.S. relationship with Japan has just become more complicated. The recent election victory of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has resulted in more resistance to a truly shared U.S.-Japanese mission. Refusing to provide troops to aid the coalition in Afghanistan, and generally uninterested in actively engaging in overseas security missions, the risk-averse DPJ is pulling back from its responsibilities in the U.S.-Japan alliance, as well as internationally. This leaves the U.S. in the position of responding to an ally who demands an equal role yet resists assuming equal responsibilities.

The Washington Post: U.S. is reaching out to East Asia's powerful nations: Ever since taking office, President Obama has signaled that the United States wants to improve relations with the powerhouse nations of East Asia, and he'll put his personal imprint on that when he travels to the region for the first time next week.

The Heritage Foundation: Ten Things about China and Climate Change: Many global environmental debates are chiefly about China. In the past, it has been acid rain made in the PRC but falling elsewhere. Eventually, the conversation will shift to water shortages and diversion that have already displaced millions and may eventually threaten conflict with some of China's neighbors. As the international community lurches toward the Copenhagen climate change conference, the main topic is carbon emissions and climate change. Again, the debate will center on the PRC.

The Heritage Foundation: U.S.-China Space Cooperation: More Costs Than Benefits: With the delivery of the full report from the U.S. Human Space Flight Review Committee (commonly referred to as the Augustine Report), the potential for a substantial, multi-year gap in U.S. manned spaceflight capability has drawn increased attention. In light of this problem, the idea has been raised in some quarters, including in the report, that the United States should expand its cooperation with the People's Republic of China (PRC) and leverage Chinese space capabilities. Such cooperation has far more potential cost than benefit.

The Heritage Foundation: America's New Japan Challenge: The rumbling you heard across the Pacific Ocean over the weekend was Japan moving further from the United States -- and closer to China. Japan's left-of-center opposition party, which has long spouted anti-capitalist and anti-US rhetoric, won a landslide victory in Sunday's election.

The Heritage Foundation: DPJ victory poses challenges for U.S. alliance: Japan's opposition Democratic Party of Japan fulfilled predictions by winning a landslide victory over the moribund ruling party. The change in government is historic: It is only the second time in 50 years that the Liberal Democratic Party has been out of power. A disgruntled and angry electorate threw the LDP out of office for not only failing to fix Japan's long-standing economic problems but seeming incapable of offering any hope for future improvement.

Council on Foreign Relations: The Rise of Political Opposition in Japan: The Democratic Party of Japan's (DPJ) landslide victory in August 2009 served as a watershed moment in the country's electoral politics. Japan, a parliamentary democracy, had been dominated by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), governing by itself or in coalition with others for nearly all of the last half century. But falling popularity of the LDP, an economy in decline, and growing public dissatisfaction with politics, gave a historic opportunity to the opposition.

The Heritage Foundation: How to Save the U.S.-Japan Alliance: Countless official statements by the U.S. and Japan have highlighted the two countries' bilateral alliance as the linchpin or cornerstone of stability in Asia and indispensable to achieving the strategic objectives of both countries. Although true, such assertions are faulty on two counts: (1) they overlook the parallel criticality of the U.S.-South Korean alliance, and (2) they presume the existing paradigm with Tokyo will continue to meet U.S. security needs.

The Heritage Foundation: Chinese Foreign Investment: How Much and Where?: Available data provide only a partial answer to the question of exactly how much China is spending overseas. We know that China's acquisition of overseas assets using accumulated foreign currency, though extremely large, is far from the largest in the world. US portfolio holdings overseas stood at USD 7.2 trillion at the end of 2007, having expanded by USD 1.2 trillion in 2007 alone.

The Heritage Foundation: Drowning in Cash, Chinese Foreign Investment: Who, What and Why--Part 1 of 3: China made headlines by becoming the largest foreign holder of US Treasury bonds at the end of September 2008, and it was already the largest foreign holder of other US public debt. In the last few years, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has invested over USD 100 billion in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere. The current financial crisis further highlights the role of Chinese bond investment in the US economy and prompts questions about whether Chinese investment in equities or other assets would be helpful as well.