Asia in the Age of Uncertainty

The polling was done before the Trump-Turnbull shouting match and conflict over Japanese monetary policy.  It will be interesting to see how views change.

Asia in the Age of Uncertainty

February 1, 2017

https://www.thechicagocouncil.org/publication/asia-age-uncertainty

Executive Summary

With rapidly evolving developments both within Northeast Asia and across a range of trans-Pacific relations more broadly, the countries of the region are encountering an increasingly demanding security environment. North Korea’s nuclear program, Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea, and territorial disputes between many of the key regional actors all contribute to an uncertain and unstable regional security outlook. At the same time, these Asia-Pacific nations face some common global challenges, including climate change, terrorism, and nuclear proliferation. Countries in and around the region must carefully balance national challenges with regional interests.
Against this backdrop, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs partnered with the Lowy Institute (Australia), the Asia Pacific Foundation (Canada), Dataway Horizon (China), Genron NPO (Japan), and the East Asia Institute (South Korea) to conduct a regional public opinion poll based on varying sets of shared questions in each country. The goal is to better understand how the publics of each country view the changes taking place in the Asia-Pacific, and to better understand mutual concerns and competing visions in hopes of creating better-informed policy decisions.
It is important to note that all surveys in this report were conducted in 2016 prior to the election of Donald Trump as the president of the United States. His first few weeks have proven controversial, and may very well have shifted some of the findings in this poll. However, this underlines the importance of continuing to conduct multilateral polls in the region to monitor how public opinion has shifted at a time of increased uncertainty in the region and around the world.