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Copyright of All Azimuth: A Journal of Foreign Policy & Peace is the property of Ihsan Dogramaci Peace Foundation, Center for Foreign Policy & Peace Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, the world was in a process of transition from the unipolar system which had ruled the world since the end of the Cold War to an increasingly multilateral order. With this regard, there was a kind of consensus between academics, decision-makers and other interested actors in the international arena in the sense that the world was transitioning towards a much more multipolar order in which the US would lose gradually its status of the only superpower for the benefit of mainly China but also for other Asian-Pacific states. The aim of this paper is to examine the extent of the consequences of the COVID-19 at the geopolitical level in the framework of global power redistribution. In this sense, this paper will analyse if the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly altered the US and Chinese social, economic and political scenarios in the framework of the great power competition and also if the pandemic will substantially shift the geopolitical balance of the world. This study will try to answer which have been the effects of the pandemic in terms of geopolitics and the prospects of its impact on the global power redistribution and international leadership competition at the short and medium term. In this sense, the main question to be answered in this research is: Has the COVID-19 pandemic lead to a faster than previously expected Western loss of economic and political power able to lead to new world order transition dynamics with significant consequences for the international security architecture? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grand Strategy determines the ultimate goals and interests of a state. It has long-term effects on state policies. With the advent of the 21st century, China has emerged as a regional and global power. After entering the new era of development, China set specific goals and decided to achieve them, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. These goals are to convert China into a prosperous society, increase per capita income at par with developed states and realize modernization. In 2013, Xi Jinping announced China's Grand Strategy, while stating that the period extended to 2020 (and beyond) is the era of strategic opportunity for China. This article discusses China's Grand Strategy in the Asia- Pacific region. First, it conceptualizes Chinese strategy by focusing on its main objectives and interests. Secondly, it analyses its components while identifying how China is utilizing its economic, political, diplomatic, and security means to secure its interests in the region and maintain regional order. It also examines Chinese foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific region according to the institutions of international society described by Hadley Bull. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction of the United States-led Indo-Pacific (IPAC) and the China-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an exercise in power to reshape the geopolitics of Asia-Pacific. Under the IPAC metageography, China is potentially excluded while the US's security border is extended to the Indian Ocean. BRI, on the other hand, has been advanced as an alternative model of economic globalization and diplomacy that is characterized by open and fluid borders. In this paper, we draw on a geoeconomic lens using oil/gas and the solar energy trade to shed light on Asia-Pacific's changing metageography. Power is constituted through relational coupling and decoupling as China and the US are locked in geoeconomic competition that expands but also contracts imaginaries of the region. The findings suggest that neither China nor the US holds a relational advantage in all energy sectors; each country however leads in sub-sectors. China, BRI and Asian IPAC are all significant importers of US oil and gas while China's solar trade has accelerated regional integration that includes the US. The paper concludes that China's exclusion from IPAC is not consistent with the geoeconomic realities of energy trade. BRI on the other hand has staked its success as an anti-colonial space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's economic growth and military modernization have forced the US to shift its focus from the Middle-East to the Asia-Pacific region. The US Pivot to Asia Pacific policy aims to maintain the US hegemony by containing China in this region. This article is an attempt to gauge the responses of those regional countries which are having close economic and political relations with China and the US. It also tries to highlight the factors which increased the US military and diplomatic involvement in the region. This article tries to find the answer of research question that why the US has introduced Asia-Pacific policy and how the regional countries have responded to it. As per the nature of the research, secondary sources have been used to complete this research. Three qualitative approaches such as historical, descriptive and exploratory within the broader framework of post positivist paradigm have been used to find the answer of the research question. This study is conducted under the lens of Hegemonic Stability Theory. This study concludes with the argument that regional countries have shown mixed reactions to the US policy and geo-political competition is likely to grow between the US and China in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional long-range strike weapons of US allies may exacerbate Chinese concerns about the survivability of its small nuclear arsenal against a precision pre-emptive strike from the US-led coalition, although the degree of the new threat depends on various factors including the numbers and types of such weapons to be deployed. Conventional hypersonic missiles, in particular, may generate acute threat perception, as they can play the role of "door kicker" against China's so-called anti-access, area-denial capabilities and pave the way for subsequent massive strikes with more traditional weapons. The development of conventional long-range-strike weapons by US allies also affects the risk of conventional conflicts escalating inadvertently to the nuclear level. Such risks are particularly salient in the Asia–Pacific region because of at least two factors: the ambiguous role of Chinese theater nuclear weapons and significant entanglement of conventional and nuclear capabilities at the theater level. Such conventional capabilities of US allies also help shape the region's overall military balance—something China treats as part of its broader understanding of the term "strategic stability." Regional players, however, have competing visions about what constitutes a stable military balance. They also have conflicting interpretations of why other parties are pursuing conventional long-range-strike weapons. The development of such capabilities will pose growing challenges to regional strategic stability in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Asia-Pacific region is home to nearly half of the world's population. The region has seen a recent rapid increase in the prevalence of obesity, type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The present systematic review summarizes the recent prevalence and trends of Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) among adults in countries of the Asia-Pacific Region.Methods: Data on MetS in Asia-Pacific countries were obtained using a stepwise process by searching the online Medline database using MeSH terms 'Metabolic Syndrome X' and 'Epidemiology/EP'. For the purpose of describing prevalence data for the individual countries, studies that were most recent, nationally representative or with the largest sample size were included. When evaluating secular trends in prevalence in a country we only considered studies that evaluated the temporal change in prevalence between similar populations, prospective studies based on the same population or National surveys conducted during different time periods.Results: This literature search yielded a total of 757 articles, and five additional article were identified by screening of reference lists. From this total, 18 studies were eligible to be included in the final analysis. Of the 51 Asia-Pacific countries (WHO) we only located data for 15. There was wide between country variation in prevalence of MetS. A national survey from Philippines conducted in 2003 revealed the lowest reported prevalence of 11.9% according to NCEP ATP III criteria. In contrast, the highest recorded prevalence in the region (49.0%) came from a study conducted in urban Pakistan (Karachchi, 2004). Most studies reported a higher prevalence of MetS in females and urban residents. Data on secular trends were available for China, South Korea and Taiwan. An increase in the prevalence of MetS was observed in all three countries.Conclusion: Despite differences in methodology, diagnostic criteria and age of subjects studied, the Asia-Pacific region is facing a significant epidemic of MetS. In most countries nearly 1/5th of the adult population or more were affected by MetS with a secular increase in prevalence. Strategies aimed at primary prevention are required to ameliorate a further increase in the epidemic and for the reduction of the morbidity and mortality associated with MetS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alliances continue to occupy a prominent place in the Asia-Pacific's security architecture. For many regional states such as Australia and Japan, their respective alliances with the USA are the unchallenged foundations of their security. But when the rise of China is causing major change in the region, and when many countries are increasingly reliant on China economically, is the region's network of alliances any longer appropriate or useful? This article reviews alliances in theory and practice, and argues that, while alliances are unlikely to disappear, their utility is nothing like as clear-cut as many of their supporters would have one believe. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Asia Pacific is a global growth engine and remaining cognizant to this fact, the US is striving to maintain its regional supremacy. China has achieved a remarkable growth in last two decades while the US was involved in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The current transformation of China at global landscape forced the US policy makers to revisit and review their strategic priorities in Asia Pacific to harness the China's expanding political clout. Thus, Sino-US strategic engagement in Asia-Pacific is quite significant under the prevailing geo-political landscape and deems thorough research. The US-China strategic engagement in Asia-Pacific is a blend of cooperation and competition simultaneously. In keeping with the core realist theories and postulates of power transition, the US is and will remain as a dominant power. However, economically the US is giving away its some influence which is taken over by China. The US think tanks consider China as a competitor and hence managing China's rise is a test case for the US diplomacy in Asia-Pacific. China as a rising power has posed a substantial challenge to the US led global order. The research concludes that contrary to the US approaches the China is currently focusing on soft power approach and pursuing a peaceful rise to extend its economic signature across the globe to economically influence the regional geo-political order. US-China clash of geo-strategic interests in Asia-Pacific has led to regional polarization and the phenomenon is quite devastating in South Asia with two nuclear armed arch rivals India-Pakistan. Thus, the developing global scenarios merits visibility of both powers strategies so that the world may not witness another catastrophe owing to great powers engagement. Pakistan also needs to put its house in order and keep its policy open instead of aligning any power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]