Xi Jinping, China's new head of state, is not a reformer but a hardline party loyalist. His first months in de facto power do not point towards a new liberal era in China and his rhetoric evokes a China of the past.
Europe does not have an automatic seat at the table in Asia Pacific and must therefore work harder to secure its own interests. However, on issues of trade and economics, the EU is clearly showing that it has a strategy that it is implementing.
What is the rationale behind North Korea's third nuclear test – and what exactly does it mean for the security of the wider region and the interests of China, the US, Russia and Europe?
Russia-watchers have long been interested in her place on the international arena. Now, with China at the centre of the growing power game, the question is how Russia will seek to position herself in the Pacific Century.
Microblogs were almost nonexistent 10 years ago but have exploded since 2009. Although Weibo remains a public sphere full of restrictions, the weibo generation’s movers and shakers have swelled, creating a battle for public opinion in China.
Sanctions are the EU's sole coercive instrument of power short of military action (Brussels, mercifully, does not engage in warfare). The EU needs to understand their impact so that it can use them more effectively.
The main theme of 2013 is likely to be the unraveling of the global economy and supporting political integration.
2012 saw continuing crisis in the eurozone, growing Euroscepticism and populism in some corners of Europe, faltering transitions in Egypt and elsewhere, more violence in Syria, a new leadership in China, and both Putin II and Obama II. So what will 2013 hold?
The leadership election in the US and the selection in China are mirror images of each other. So are the challenges that each will face, with implications not just for the US and China, but for the rest of the world.
Ahead of the selection of China’s new leadership on November 8th, Thomas König of ECFR’s China Programme explains what the process involves, who the new men will be, and why it matters.