In this issue

With the election of Donald J. Trump aspresident of the United States, the world is nowawash in uncertainty. For those preoccupiedwith international relations, the uncertainty isparticularly acute, as so little is known aboutTrump’s views on foreign affairs or how his idiosyncraticapproach to politics and public discoursewill play out on a global stage. For Asia,Trump’s brief but unprecedented phone conversationwith Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen onDecember 2 may be a harbinger of upheavals tocome. As leaders around the world brace themselvesto deal with Trump, the role of diplomacyis set to become more important than ever.In the cover package for this issue of GlobalAsia, guest editors Jochen Prantl and Evelyn Gohat the Australian National University (ANU) haveassembled a series of essays around the conceptof “strategic diplomacy” in Northeast Asia — anew approach that they define as “the processby which state and non-state actors socially constructand frame their view of the world; set theiragendas; and communicate, contest and negotiatediverging core interests and goals.” Unliketraditional international relations, focused onbilateral and multilateral diplomatic relationshipsamong states, strategic diplomacy is “ananalytical framework to study the systemic implicationsof diplomacy in order to understand andexplain what makes the region hang together.”

Global Asia Magazine Description:

Global Asia is a quarterly publication of the East Asia Foundation. The foundation, established in Seoul in January 2005, strives to promote peace, prosperity, security and sustainability in East Asia by creating an open and creative forum for the exchange of ideas on regional co-operation and integration, among other goals.
The mission we have set for ourselves with Global Asia is both bold and urgent: It is to provide a compelling, serious, and responsible forum for distinguished thinkers, policymakers, political leaders and business people to debate the most important issues in Asia today.
Global Asia is not a journal with a fixed point of view, or a particular agenda. Our aim is to give voice to the global dimension of what is happening in Asia. In our pages and on our web site, we aim for Asia to speak to the world, and the world to Asia. That is important at a time when this region is playing an ever greater role in world affairs.
There are other fine publications on international affairs. What sets us apart is our focus: Asia. We believe that the world is moving into “the Age of Asia,” to borrow a phrase from one of the articles in the inaugural issue of Global Asia in September 2006. This transformation is not going to occur overnight, but it has already begun.
The region’s dynamic economic growth, stable and accountable political systems, maturing democracies, and evolving sense of community are giving Asia greater weight in the world. These developments will have enormous implications for governments, businesses, societies and individuals across the globe. How that transformation is viewed, and shaped, from within Asia and how it is perceived outside Asia is an essential part of the story we have to tell.
The forces of globalization are having a profound impact throughout the world. And they are being influenced and channeled in different ways in different parts of the world. Ours is the story of Asia’s experience with globalization, and the ideas and debates influencing it. In pursuing our mission, we aim to play a part, however modest, in helping to shape the future of Asia.