Research desks
Indo-Pacific
1 April 2025
It’s been over three months since the UK joined a band of 14 other mainly Pacific Rim countries in a trade bloc that is the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (or CPTPP for short).
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19 January 2025
What is the likelihood of another Korean War?
Combat in the Korean War ceased on July 27th 1953 with the establishment of a military armistice between North and South Korea. Still, a peace treaty has yet to officially signal the conflict’s end. Over the following decades, relations between the states have remained strained, with reunification attempts and political action driving intra-peninsular destabilisation. The likelihood of a reunified Korea grows increasingly improbable as hostility between North and South Korea skyrocketed over the past year.
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29 December 2024
Earlier this month, Beijing’s tech industry further cracked down on its critical semiconductor and chip trade as it ramps up policy safeguards against impending Washington tariffs. This escalation involved China barred gallium, germanium, and antimony exports to the US, hoping to strengthen the enforcement of existing limits on critical mineral exports that Beijing had begun rolling out only to the US. Perceived as an escalation of trade tensions between the two giants, China is seemingly shielding itself from a one-sided “trade war” rhetoric that Trump will unleash upon his ascendancy into office once more.
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22 December 2024
A new policy precedent for a Trump presidency on the Korean Peninsula?
South Korea’s recent declaration of martial law under President Yoon Suk Yeol, though lasting only six hours, has sparked significant debate about its potential implications for right-wing-led democracies worldwide. Yoon’s unilateral attempt to circumvent parliamentary procedure has raised alarms, particularly in light of ongoing shifts in global power dynamics & America’s impending global retraction.
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