The US President Donald Trump release a document named "Free and Open Indo-Pacific" (FOIP) in 2017 at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. The Trump administration sees "Indo-Pacific Region" as a central foreign and economic policy for dealing with China. However, there are still fewer countries who have adopted the term "Indo-Pacific", they still term the region as "Asia-Pacific". Why the US is focused on Indo-Pacific region? Is it to counter China or something else is going on? The US partners such as Japan and South Korea have been cautious in their approach. So why does the US changed the name from Asia to Indo-Pacific? The term Indo-Pacific has enjoyed growing popularity in Japan, the US, Australia, India and France. It has become a kind of geopolitical nomenclature, which has nothing to do with term itself, rather it perceives as a US strategy to counter China in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean. The ever-expanding Chine...
The “Great Recession” in 2008 showed the weaknesses in Western economic models. The crisis highlighted the differences in political and economic paths adopted by Western and Asian countries. It all started in late 1990s, when American real estate prices were soaring and banks provided mortgages to anyone without income guarantee until 2007 when the real estate prices fell and borrowers defaulted on their repayments. But before we analyze the crisis, it’s necessary to understand the western economic liberal policies which led to it. After decades of government intervention, the US President Ronald Reagan and the UK PM Margret Thatcher started to “roll back the state” from national economies. They demanded a return to Adam Smith’s liberal policies which were encourage individual realization and reducing the social welfare spending. The renewed belief in ‘market’ and ‘invisible hand’ led them to believe that market itself would provide welfare for all. Western Liberal Economy Lib...