Shiro Armstrong
Shiro Armstrong is Professor of Economics and Director of International Partnerships at the Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University. He is Director of the Australia–Japan Research Centre, Editor of the East Asia Forum and Director of the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research. He is also a Visiting Professor at Keio University, Research Associate at the Center on Japanese Economy and Business at the Columbia Business School, Non-resident Fellow at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan, and Research Associate at the New Zealand APEC Study Centre.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9756-7860
At the Brink? »
Asia in the Global Economic Order
Edited by: Shiro Armstrong, Yves Tiberghien
Publication date: 2026
The global economic order is undergoing a period of profound transformation. Heightened geopolitical rivalry, rapid technological change and growing concerns about economic security are reshaping trade, investment, supply chains and global governance. These developments raise fundamental questions about the future of openness, cooperation and economic growth for Asia and the Pacific region.
This volume brings together leading scholars and policy experts from across Asia and the Pacific to examine how the region is navigating an increasingly contested international economic environment. The chapters explore the dynamics of great-power competition, the restructuring of global supply chains, the strategic role of technology and the pressures facing the liberal international economic order. They also consider the prospects for regional cooperation and the policy choices that may allow the region to sustain economic integration and prosperity in a more fragmented world. The book offers nine innovative proposals to buttress the global economic order and respond to current challenges.
Based on papers presented at the 41st Pacific Trade and Development (PAFTAD) Conference, At the Brink? offers timely analysis of the evolving global economic landscape and provides insights into how Asia and the wider international community can respond to the challenges of a shifting world economy.
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Navigating Prosperity and Security in East Asia »
Publication date: May 2023
The world’s two largest economies, the United States and China, are locked in a trade war, complicating policy choices internationally. These choices are sharper for the countries of East and Southeast Asia than they are elsewhere, because the multilateral rules-based economic order on which East Asian economic integration and cooperation is built is under threat.
Economic policy has never been separate from security considerations. For decades, the national security risks inherent in economic exchange have been mitigated under a US-led system that allowed the strengthening of economic ties, including between China and the rest of the world. But economics and security are increasingly entangled in a way that is damaging to both, creating a dangerous trade-off. Now, as global uncertainties grow, the risks of international exchange—rather than its benefits—are beginning to dominate the calculus for some policymakers.
Against this backdrop, how can Southeast Asian countries and US allies in Asia balance their security interests and their economic interests? And how can these countries, individually and collectively, broaden their policy options and deepen economic integration? This volume investigates the domestic and international dimensions of these questions.
Asian Economic Integration in an Era of Global Uncertainty »
Edited by: Shiro Armstrong, Tom Westland
Publication date: January 2018
The Pacific Trade and Development (PAFTAD) conference series has been at the forefront of analysing challenges facing the economies of East Asia and the Pacific since its first meeting in Tokyo in January 1968.
The 38th PAFTAD conference met at a key time to consider international economic integration. Earlier in the year, the people of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union and the United States elected Donald Trump as their next president on the back of an inward-looking ‘America First’ promise. Brexit and President Trump represent a growing, and worrying, trend towards protectionism in the North Atlantic countries that have led the process of globalisation since the end of the Second World War.
The chapters in the volume describe the state of play in Asian economic integration but, more importantly, look forward to the region’s future, and the role it might play in defending the global system that has underwritten its historic rise. Asia has the potential to stand as a bulwark against the dual threats of North Atlantic protectionism and slowing trade growth, but collective leadership will be needed regionally and difficult domestic reforms will be required in each country.
Financing Higher Education and Economic Development in East Asia »
Edited by: Shiro Armstrong, Bruce Chapman
Publication date: November 2011
This volume addresses important issues to do with access to higher education and different models of its financing in the East Asia region. It is enriched by diverse perspectives from vastly different starting points and by the historical and institutional settings in the region. The issues are set out in the context of the value of higher education in economic development and how it contributes to the capacities to adopt and adapt to new technologies and undertake institutional innovation. The established and well-functioning higher education loan and financing systems, such as those in Australia, and the experience of different systems tried—both in East Asia and in the United States—are brought to bear in this volume.