This paper examines the Japanese factors behind the stalemate between Japan and Russia. It treats the territorial dispute not as a core reason but as a consequence of deeper problems, both emotive and structural. Japanese leaders cannot challenge the multiple forces keeping them from ending the stalemate.

This article explains why the Philippines, a small country and a long-time US ally, shook the world in 2016 by democratically electing a president who has defied conventional expectations, touched the lives of ordinary Filipinos, been accused of human rights violations in his war on drugs, and could affect the geostrategic rivalry between the US and China.