In the first of three articles on the state of Asian studies and language teaching in Australia, Anne McLaren highlights the decline of university Chinese Honours programs, cutting of a vital pipeline of China talent.

As the only country to suffer a nuclear attack, Japan has a unique responsibility to fight for the elimination of nuclear weapons, writes Koichi Hamada. But that does not mean it should not be able to protect itself with its own nuclear deterrent.

In its efforts to maintain ties with both Russia and Europe, China is wading through a briar patch of conflicting interests and rapidly changing sentiments, writes Yu Jie.

The global and regional tensions highlighted by the war in Ukraine requires Australia to adjust its diplomacy. John McCarthy argues this calls for deepening dialogue with the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, and the Global South.

Chinese policymakers must somehow implement policies to reduce the cost of raising children without crashing the economy, writes Yi Fuxian. But even if they manage to increase the number of births, they will almost certainly be unable to reverse demographic trends.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has acknowledged a record of human rights abuses by security forces, but without moves to bring perpetrators to justice and other tangible actions by the state victims will be disappointed, writes Dirk Tomsa.

If ASEAN can’t tango with China or the U.S., who else? Pragmatic as always, ASEAN’s favourite choices for hedging partners remain the EU and Japan but attention appears to have also fallen on India as its third choice this year, writes Sharon Seah.