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Welcome to our final ASPI suggests for 2013!

How big are the region’s navies? OpenCanada.org has a super useful infographic ^[2](above, click to enlarge) that compares the size of China’s, Japan’s, Russia’s, Canada’s and the US navies.

This week ASPI released a new paper by Peter Chalk ^[3] on political, economic and social changes ahead for Myanmar. For more Myanmar developments, ANU’s Gerard McCarthy has an InsideStory piece ^[4] on the role of social media and the country’s growing Islamophobia. Based on over 100 informal interviews, McCarthy explores the increasing contest over Myanmar’s national identity and information technology.

Switching now to nuclear issues and Myanmar, Strategist contributor Kalman A. Robertson and Olivia Cable have a New Mandala post ^[5] examining the role of nuclear inspections and international confidence in the country.

Sticking with our region, the Körber Foundation has a new policy brief ^[6] on the strategic challenges in the Indian Ocean. Professor of Strategic Studies at  the independent Center for Policy Research in New Delhi, Brahma Chellaney examines threats to freedom of navigation and China’s growing role.

Turning now to China-US relations, Carnegie Endowment have released the results of a poll on public and elite attitudes ^[7]and their effect on the bilateral security relationship. Two of their findings include:

• There is a low level of strategic trust between the United States and China, which could make bilateral relations more turbulent.
• Despite this lack of mutual trust, only small minorities of all respondents in both countries saw the other country as an enemy.

And with that, The Strategist team wishes all its readers a wonderful holiday season and we look forward to publishing more considered analysis and blog posts in 2014!

Image source: OpenCanada