Modi: Breaking the Mold of Indian Politics (Part 1 of 2)
Memo #296 Narendra Modi’s Historic Electoral Victory. By John Harriss – jharriss [at] sfu.ca HE DID IT. That Narendra Modi should have won India’s 16th General Election is no great surprise. But the scale of his triumph is. Together with most other commentators I expected Modi to win, but thought it likely that he would be constrained by […]
Modi: Breaking the Mold of Indian Politics (part 2 of 2)
Memo #297 How Modi won may tell us something about the face of a Modi premiership. By John Harriss – jharriss [at] sfu.ca Read Part 1 of this memo HERE. Yes, Modi did it—won a transformative electoral victory. But HOW he did it is also important. There are three aspects of these elections that stand […]
Nǐ sǐ wǒ huó (“You Die, I live”): Xi Jinping’s Anti-Corruption Campaign as Power Consolidation
Memo #295 By Elizabeth MacArthur – e.macarthur [at] alumni.ubc.ca In a speech made shortly after coming to power in the fall of 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping famously vowed to crack down on CCP and State corruption by “upholding the fight against tigers and flies”. Over a year later, he has made good on his […]
Chinese SOEs and Non-Renewable Resource Development in Alberta
Memo #294 By Daniel Wood – dwood [at] alumni.ubc.ca Canada’s abundance of non-renewable energy resources, such as conventional and synthetic crude and natural gas, are vital to the national economy. According to Statistics Canada, jobs from this sector currently contribute to 4% of Canada’s total labour force and 6.2% of its GDP. Meanwhile, the number […]
A Canal Runs through It: Seoul’s Ara Waterway at Two
Memo #293 By Daniel Kane – danielkane [at] gmail.com The Han is the river of the South Korean capital of Seoul, and for most of that city’s history it served as highway to the Yellow Sea, some twenty kilometers to the west. To be sure, it still does, but since 1953 and the Korean War armistice […]
Coalitional Constraints in India: Why we shouldn’t fear Modi
Memo #292 By Geoffrey Macdonald – GPMacdonald [at] gmail.com Polling indicates that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be announced next week as the clear winner of India’s scheduled parliamentary elections. With this result, the worst fears of many Indians and international observers will be realized: Narendra Modi, who is banned from entering the United […]
Engaging China: Myth, Aspiration, and Strategy in Canadian Policy from Trudeau to Harper (Video Interview with Paul Evans)
Memo #291 Behind the Book: Dr. Paul Evans discusses his latest book Engaging China: Myth, Aspiration, and Strategy in Canadian Policy from Trudeau to Harper Last month the Asia Pacific Memo sat down with Paul Evans to discuss his recently released book, Engaging China: Myth, Aspiration, and Strategy in Canadian Policy from Trudeau to Harper […]
Decision Time for Hong Kong Democracy Fast Approaching
Memo #288 With a raft of elections in the offing, Beijing must soon decide if it will give Hong Kong its promised democracy. By Jonathan Manthorpe – jonathan.manthorpe [at] gmail.com This June 4 will mark the 25th anniversary of the Chinese government’s crackdown on the pro-reform demonstrators in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Nowhere will that memory […]
Afghanistan Elections: Why Should We Care?
Memo #284 By Dur-e-Aden – dur-e-aden [at] hotmail.com This week Afghans headed to the polls to help usher in a transfer of power from one democratic government to the next. While some observers hail this as a major achievement, others worry what lingering issues of rampant Taliban violence, ethnic politics, widespread corruption and fraud during […]
Japan’s Economy & Trade (A Video Interview with Watanabe Yorizumi)
Memo #280 Featuring Watanabe Yorizumi Last month the Asia Pacific Memo sat down with Watanabe Yorizumi, since 2005 a member of the Faculty of Policy Management at the Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University. Professor Watanabe came to his academic career with a distinguished diplomatic background, having served several appointments in Japan’s foreign service, […]