Welcome to the first issue of Asian Affairs for 2024. I am very pleased to say that we have articles covering West, South, Southeast and East Asia plus a fine crop of book reviews. The journal continues to attract high-quality submissions from writers around the world and it has been a pleasure working with them to deliver the articles in the following pages.
We begin with an analysis of the activities of Chinese embassies in Southeast Asia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dominik Mierzejewski of the University of Łódź in Poland argues that their activities should be understood as one part of China’s efforts to reshape the regional order towards a more informal structure it calls ‘consultative governance’. Mierzejewski demonstrates the difference between this approach and Western ideas of ‘track two diplomacy’.
Niloufar Baghernia of the Australian National University casts a sceptical eye over claims that the restoration of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia in March 2023 was a landmark in China’s advancing engagement in Middle Eastern affairs. She argues, instead, that China’s role in the deal was minimal and that the main drivers of the agreement were Iran and Saudi Arabia’s own objectives and Saudi Arabia’s growing economic and military power. China’s greatest influence resulted from its tilt towards the interests of Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf Arab states.
In the last issue we covered China’s dilemmas in dealing with the new Taliban government in Afghanistan. In this issue we outline the factors shaping India’s response to the same issue. Shubhrajeet Konwer from Gauhati University and Mallika Pegu highlight the contradictions in between the current Indian government’s promotion of a Hindu-nationalist agenda at home and the need to engage with an Islamist regime in Kabul. They argue that it will struggle to convince its support base that working with the Taliban will benefit India in the long run.
Finally, Liam Devlin critically assesses Jordan’s cultural heritage infrastructure. While the country is generally viewed as one of the most stable in the Middle East, Devlin draws attention to the problem of archaeological looting which he describes as ‘endemic’. He proposes new ways forward that can achieve the dual means of protecting the nation’s cultural heritage and solving some of the longstanding economic issues that have plagued the country.
We conclude with another excellent and topical selection of book reviews. Huge thanks are due to our Book Reviews Coordinator, Alex Rees, for his creative and efficient work finding reviewers and organising the review process. He has done an excellent job assembling such a good collection of writers and articles.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.