Since the Australian Government’s last White Paper on defense in 2009, there have been rapid changes within the Asia-Pacific region. As a consequence, the forthcoming Australian defense white paper will be perhaps the most important that has ever been prepared. With a rising assertive China, the US adopting an "Asia Pivot" doctrine, and a host of rising Asian powers, the Australian Government cannot defer the strategic complexities of the region to the ’never never’ of 2030 like the 2009 paper did.

In the run-up to and aftermath of the Iraq War, favourability toward the US, which had spiked upward after 9/11, went into free-fall in many countries. This and the accompanying rise of anti-Americanism is important because it has undercut US soft power and thereby reduced Washington's ability to promote its interests overseas, and indeed those of its allies.

The football tournament, which will be hosted by Australia for the first time, is expected to attract 45,000 visitors and have a potential television reach of 2.5 billion viewers. The Lowy Institute for International Policy, in a paper released on Friday, says the tournament will present a big opportunity for Australian businesses to network with Asian investors and consumers.

Thailand should take the lead as the "United States of Asean" and take advantage of the Kingdom's rich, religious culture as its selling points in branding itself ahead of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015, said marketing guru Philip Kotler. "Thailand has a beautiful culture and is one of the major Buddhist countries in Southeast Asia. The country is religious-oriented and has a good harmony and principles of good living. These should be the selling points of Thailand," he said.

Salman Rushdie was recently asked for his opinion on contemporary Indian fiction. The celebrated novelist surveyed the landscape for his interviewer, offering nods of approval to what is now a well established range of Indian writing in English. But it wasn’t as attractive as what was happening across the border. “I actually think,” Rushdie said, “that the Pakistani stuff is more interesting.”

In response to the release of Reporters Without Borders’ 2013 World Press Freedom Index, Radio Free Asia’s President Libby Liu said the survey’s findings show little signs of improvement in Asia with the exception of Burma.