Project MUSE®: Asia Policy - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/511
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Asia Policy.daily12026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USNumber 1 (2006) through current issueLatest Articles: Asia PolicyTWOProject MUSE®Asia Policy1559-29601559-0968Latest articles in Asia Policy. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Fragile Power: Rethinking Authoritarian Agenda-Setting in a Fragmented Global Order
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982377
<p></p>
Alexander Cooley and Alexander Dukalskis's Dictating the Agenda: The Authoritarian Resurgence in World Politics is a powerful and provocative intervention in the expanding field of transnational authoritarianism. The book makes a bold claim: that in the wake of the current crisis in the liberal international order, authoritarian states have learned not merely to resist liberal norms but to set the global agenda—shaping the terms, language, and institutional frameworks of international engagement. This claim, elegantly substantiated with rich empirical material, places Dictating the Agenda alongside earlier landmark works such as Exit from Hegemony and Making the World Safe for Dictatorship, while extending their
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982394">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/511/image/coversmallFragile Power: Rethinking Authoritarian Agenda-Setting in a Fragmented Global Order2026-02-12text/htmlen-USFragile Power: Rethinking Authoritarian Agenda-Setting in a Fragmented Global Order2026-02-122026TWOProject MUSE®240942026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-12The Paradox of Liberal Support: Navigating Repression and Co-optation
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982378
<p></p>
There are many books about the rise of illiberal states and their attempts to reshape the liberal international order, but the one by Alexander Cooley and Alexander Dukalskis is different. Dictating the Agenda: The Authoritarian Resurgence in World Politics offers a refreshing, innovative, and comprehensive perspective on how authoritarians in the post–Cold War era have managed to push back against liberalism to regain control.Conventional literature in the field tends to focus on state-based attempts to protect or promote authoritarianism either in the context of international organizations or in bilateral interactions with one another. The focus of this book is on nonstate transnational networks and linkages
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982394">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/511/image/coversmallThe Paradox of Liberal Support: Navigating Repression and Co-optation2026-02-12text/htmlen-USThe Paradox of Liberal Support: Navigating Repression and Co-optation2026-02-122026TWOProject MUSE®98162026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-12Linkage, Leverage, and Authoritarian Snapback
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982379
<p></p>
The zeitgeist is one of "polycrisis"—characterized by gloom (in the democratic West) that we are at the end of times: The end of the U.S. unipolar moment. The end of the liberal international order. The end of what Francis Fukuyama called "the end of history."1 Several recent books examine elements of what Martin Wolf has termed the "crisis of democratic capitalism."2 Comparative political scientists have unearthed myriad domestic causes of democratic backsliding amid the "third wave of autocratization."3 Meanwhile, observers of world politics are starting to grapple with transnational processes of "authoritarian internationalism," or learning and coordination among nondemocratic actors.4 Alexander Cooley and
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982394">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/511/image/coversmallLinkage, Leverage, and Authoritarian Snapback2026-02-12text/htmlen-USLinkage, Leverage, and Authoritarian Snapback2026-02-122026TWOProject MUSE®337122026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-12Riding the Wave versus Dictating the Agenda?
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982380
<p></p>
The resurgence of authoritarianism around the world has prompted much analysis about both the causes and consequences. Regarding causes, after a wave of democratization we historically have seen a "reverse wave" where many new democracies cannot consolidate democratic rule and revert to authoritarianism.1 Many researchers, however, argue that the current wave of authoritarianism should be considered something new or distinct due to authoritarian challenges inside established democracies accompanied by reverse waves in new democracies. In line with this argument, Alexander Cooley and Alexander Dukalskis's book Dictating the Agenda: The Authoritarian Resurgence in World Politics contends that the current wave of
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982394">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/511/image/coversmallRiding the Wave versus Dictating the Agenda?2026-02-12text/htmlen-USRiding the Wave versus Dictating the Agenda?2026-02-122026TWOProject MUSE®152672026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-12Illiberal Power in Liberal Spaces: International Organizations amid Democratic Retreat
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982381
<p></p>
That China—and perhaps to a lesser extent Russia—have gained new power on the global scene in recent decades is not news. As of the time of writing, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, leading the world's second-largest economy, is setting the basis of China's next five-year plan, which will no doubt have huge rippling effects for years to come. Russia's outlook, at least economically, is not as strong, but its influence is certainly growing in parts of the world, including in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. The war in Ukraine has oddly given Russia new allies.It is also not news that these regimes are no friends to the liberal ideas that underpin the once-liberal international order
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982394">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/511/image/coversmallIlliberal Power in Liberal Spaces: International Organizations amid Democratic Retreat2026-02-12text/htmlen-USIlliberal Power in Liberal Spaces: International Organizations amid Democratic Retreat2026-02-122026TWOProject MUSE®280102026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-12Authors' Response: Unpacking the Authoritarian Snapback
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982382
<p></p>
Our collaboration on Dictating the Agenda: The Authoritarian Resurgence in World Politics emerged from a shared recognition that the assumptions, theoretical frameworks, and models of liberal diffusion that we absorbed in graduate school no longer adequately explained, or even addressed, the growing authoritarian trends that are transforming international social and political life. Domains of global governance, which are typically understood as sustained by transnational infrastructures led by liberally oriented actors, are being reshaped through political dynamics, values, and contests that are strikingly different from those that prevailed during the heyday of globalization. As Emilie Hafner-Burton notes, these
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982394">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/511/image/coversmallAuthors' Response: Unpacking the Authoritarian Snapback2026-02-12text/htmlen-USAuthors' Response: Unpacking the Authoritarian Snapback2026-02-122026TWOProject MUSE®347182026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-12The Changing Character of U.S.-China Economic Relations: From Competition to Geopolitical Rivalry, 2018–23
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982383
<p></p>
For more than 40 years of complicated diplomatic ties, the relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of China (PRC) never reached a state of severe economic confrontation.2 Yet, following a series of trade disputes in early 2018, bilateral economic relations deteriorated at a rapid pace. In the course of 2018–19, escalation ensued of what soon came to be known as the "U.S.-China trade war," and stability could not be re-established.3 Arguably, the trade war represents the most significant economic confrontation between major powers in the past half century with repercussions far beyond trade.The U.S.-China trade war between 2018 and 2023 constitutes a transformation of bilateral economic
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982394">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/511/image/coversmallThe Changing Character of U.S.-China Economic Relations: From Competition to Geopolitical Rivalry, 2018–232026-02-12text/htmlen-USThe Changing Character of U.S.-China Economic Relations: From Competition to Geopolitical Rivalry, 2018–232026-02-122026TWOProject MUSE®1641422026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-12Foreign Direct Investment Meets Tariffs and Geopolitics
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982384
<p></p>
Corporate investors welcome calm political waters, and Donald Trump's election as president in November 2016 and November 2024 delivered an investor's nightmare. Trump's embrace of high tariffs and geopolitical rivalry is creating powerful cross-currents in foreign direct investment, particularly between the United States and Asia. At the same time, within Asia dynamic inward and outward FDI still drives regional growth.FDI covers investment abroad when the investor retains operational control of the foreign branch or subsidiary corporation and is almost entirely the domain of multinational corporations (MNCs), namely large firms with an investment presence in two or more countries. Following World War II, with the
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982394">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/511/image/coversmallForeign Direct Investment Meets Tariffs and Geopolitics2026-02-12text/htmlen-USForeign Direct Investment Meets Tariffs and Geopolitics2026-02-122026TWOProject MUSE®1292282026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-12China, Russia, and Central Asia: Opportunities and Limits for Actors Great and Small
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982385
<p></p>
Is China challenging Russia's traditional sphere of influence in Central Asia? Is the region—made up of five former Soviet republics (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan)—becoming a locus of competition or cooperation between these two great powers? Some American policy analysts have openly speculated about whether the Trump administration could "split" Russia from China1 and about Central Asia as a region ripe for increasing Sino-Russian disagreements. One writer went as far as to opine that "China has supplanted Russia as the most influential nation in Central Asia—Moscow's traditional geopolitical backyard….[T]here is now space to enlist Moscow as a silent but meaningful partner in
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982394">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/511/image/coversmallChina, Russia, and Central Asia: Opportunities and Limits for Actors Great and Small2026-02-12text/htmlen-USChina, Russia, and Central Asia: Opportunities and Limits for Actors Great and Small2026-02-122026TWOProject MUSE®1668332026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-12Introduction
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982386
<p></p>
As geopolitical competition intensifies and technology becomes increasingly central to national power, Taiwan finds itself at the nexus of economic indispensability and strategic vulnerability. Its global leadership in semiconductors and information and communications technologies has long underpinned both its prosperity and security, yet mounting pressure from the People's Republic of China (PRC), shifting U.S. industrial policy, and rapid technological change are forcing Taipei to rethink how it sustains this position.This Asia Policy roundtable series brings together a diverse set of essays that examine Taiwan's evolving technology and industrial strategies across emerging and established domains from frontier
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982394">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/511/image/coversmallIntroduction2026-02-12text/htmlen-USIntroduction2026-02-122026TWOProject MUSE®89812026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-12Securing Leadership: How Will Taiwan Transform Semiconductor Strength into Next-Generation AI Advantage?
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982387
<p></p>
As artificial intelligence (AI) technologies reshape economic life, transform industrial structures, and increasingly define national power and global standing, the Taiwanese government in 2025 introduced its New Ten Major AI Infrastructure Initiatives policy blueprint as a long-term, state-level development strategy.1 Formulated by the National Development Council and approved by the Executive Yuan, the plan represents Taiwan's first comprehensive national roadmap in response to the accelerating global AI wave, and President Lai Ching-te and Premier Cho Jung-tai have repeatedly emphasized its strategic importance in public statements.2 The blueprint's ten initiatives consist of three goals related to industrial
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982394">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/511/image/coversmallSecuring Leadership: How Will Taiwan Transform Semiconductor Strength into Next-Generation AI Advantage?2026-02-12text/htmlen-USSecuring Leadership: How Will Taiwan Transform Semiconductor Strength into Next-Generation AI Advantage?2026-02-122026TWOProject MUSE®720992026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-12Taiwan's Tech Industrial Policy: Can It Break the Mold?
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982388
<p></p>
Industrial policy has long been credited with enabling Taiwan to both adapt to a changing global environment and reinvent its development path at each stage of its latecomer industrialization in the postwar period. Favorable conditions for industrial upgrading and the accumulation of key technological capabilities were built on a mix of horizontal policy instruments (i.e., import substitution with export promotion). As noted by Tianbiao Zhu, Taiwan's early industrial policies, particularly between the late 1950s and late 1960s, were aimed at establishing an industrial base rather than strengthening export competitiveness.1 During this period, multinational corporations (MNCs), such as Philips and Sanyo, were
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982394">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/511/image/coversmallTaiwan's Tech Industrial Policy: Can It Break the Mold?2026-02-12text/htmlen-USTaiwan's Tech Industrial Policy: Can It Break the Mold?2026-02-122026TWOProject MUSE®761752026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-12Spurring Lift-Off: Taiwan's Indigenous Drone Industry
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982389
<p></p>
The United States is Taiwan's most important security assistance partner, with U.S. arms sales, training, and other support making substantial contributions to the island's defensive capabilities. Taiwan has been a top recipient of U.S. arms sales since the 1950s, ranking behind only Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Japan,1 and U.S. support for Taiwan's national security has expanded over the last few years. Since 2023, direct support for Taiwan through Presidential Drawdown Authority and Foreign Military Financing mechanisms has joined existing security assistance processes through Foreign Military Sales and Direct Commercial Sales channels.2 While some countries in Europe—notably France, the Netherlands, and the United
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982394">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/511/image/coversmallSpurring Lift-Off: Taiwan's Indigenous Drone Industry2026-02-12text/htmlen-USSpurring Lift-Off: Taiwan's Indigenous Drone Industry2026-02-122026TWOProject MUSE®889222026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-12Strategic Autonomy: Taiwan's Growing Efforts to Develop Autonomous Systems
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982390
<p></p>
Where meaningful autonomy in weapons systems was once largely theoretical, advances in artificial intelligence (AI), paired with the wartime use of unmanned platforms in Ukraine, have demonstrated both the feasibility and the urgency of developing more sophisticated autonomous systems. For Taiwan, greater autonomy in its defense systems allows the island to offset disparities in scale, resources, and technology with China's People's Liberation Army (PLA). This essay explores Taiwan's evolving defense doctrine that emphasizes greater autonomy in its unmanned platforms, the challenges establishing the defense industrial base to manufacture them, Taiwan's technological partnerships with U.S. firms to overcome these
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982394">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/511/image/coversmallStrategic Autonomy: Taiwan's Growing Efforts to Develop Autonomous Systems2026-02-12text/htmlen-USStrategic Autonomy: Taiwan's Growing Efforts to Develop Autonomous Systems2026-02-122026TWOProject MUSE®782112026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-12Taiwan's Emerging Satellite Communications Ecosystem
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982391
<p></p>
Over the past decade, space has shifted from being the domain of a few established powers to a foundational layer of infrastructure for states worldwide. Governments and industries increasingly view the space frontier not as a prestige project or technological luxury but as a necessity for economic competitiveness, national security, and societal resilience.The strategic importance of space now extends far beyond science and technology development. Satellite systems underpin everyday life—from connectivity and navigation to environmental monitoring and disaster management. Satellites enable faster and more reliable communication, real-time observation of the Earth, and data that informs disaster prevention and
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982394">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/511/image/coversmallTaiwan's Emerging Satellite Communications Ecosystem2026-02-12text/htmlen-USTaiwan's Emerging Satellite Communications Ecosystem2026-02-122026TWOProject MUSE®685632026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-12Powering the Tech Economy: Taiwan's Energy Dilemma in the AI Era
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982392
<p></p>
Taiwan, a densely populated island of more than 23 million people, has an isolated electricity system, no interconnections to neighboring power grids, and almost no domestic fossil energy resources. Yet this constrained system underpins one of the world's most energy-intensive high-tech economies. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) holds a quasi-monopoly over the most advanced logic chips used in artificial intelligence (AI),1 while Taiwanese foundries accounted for approximately 78% of global pure-play integrated circuit foundry revenue in 2024.2 As a result, Taiwan's per-capita electricity consumption—around 12,100 kilowatt hours in 20243—is roughly double that of Germany, with industry accounting
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982394">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/511/image/coversmallPowering the Tech Economy: Taiwan's Energy Dilemma in the AI Era2026-02-12text/htmlen-USPowering the Tech Economy: Taiwan's Energy Dilemma in the AI Era2026-02-122026TWOProject MUSE®706812026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-12Taiwan's Five Trusted Industry Sectors: Opportunities and Challenges
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982393
<p></p>
On May 20, 2024, Lai Ching-te of Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the successor and political ally of President Tsai Ingwen, began his four-year presidency. This marked the first time in the island's democratic history that a governing party remained in power for a third consecutive term. Amid the challenging global security environment, one of Lai's most important policy initiatives in his first year was to promote what his administration named the "five trusted industry sectors" (2024–28), including semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI), the defense industry, security and surveillance, and next-generation communications.1Despite global turbulence, Taiwan's economy was still performing
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982394">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/511/image/coversmallTaiwan's Five Trusted Industry Sectors: Opportunities and Challenges2026-02-12text/htmlen-USTaiwan's Five Trusted Industry Sectors: Opportunities and Challenges2026-02-122026TWOProject MUSE®600002026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-12Contemplating Regional Contingency Responses to a Prospective Chinese Invasion of Taiwan: South Korea and Singapore as Case Studies
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982394
<p></p>
Escalating Sino-U.S. tensions and the risk of a clash over the status of Taiwan pose challenging questions for other Indo-Pacific stakeholder states. We contend that an invasion of Taiwan by China is a so-called low-probability, high-impact scenario that other states in the Indo-Pacific region need to plan for. In the event that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is prepared to resort to force to take Taiwan, it would demonstrate beyond doubt Beijing's willingness to tear up long-standing norms of international order in favor of "might makes right." Such a backdrop, amid the existing Russian invasion of and war with Ukraine, would bear significant implications for Indo-Pacific stakeholders.To explore how smaller
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/982394">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/511/image/coversmallContemplating Regional Contingency Responses to a Prospective Chinese Invasion of Taiwan: South Korea and Singapore as Case Studies2026-02-12text/htmlen-USContemplating Regional Contingency Responses to a Prospective Chinese Invasion of Taiwan: South Korea and Singapore as Case Studies2026-02-122026TWOProject MUSE®1333072026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002026-02-12