On July 1, Abe’s government lifted a constitutional ban on collective self-defense. The US, initially indifferent to this development, later expressed its support, despite strong rhetoric condemning Japanese aggression and behavior during WWII. It is necessary for China to properly develop its relationship with the U.S. in order to prevent Japan from further deviating from a peaceful path.

While borrowing Chinese President Xi's hope that the United States would take into consideration the Chinese perspective when it comes to territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas, Wang Dong criticizes widely spread US misperception and misunderstanding of China's foreign policy behavior, and argues that the absence of the Chinese perspective may have led to much of the misreading of China’s behavior.

The upcoming China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue provides the perfect opportunity for the United States and China to effectively and efficiently cooperate on various issues that concern both nations’ interests individually, as well as collectively. Additionally, Wu Zurong believes that the U.S. should use the forum to scale back its seemingly hardline stance against China.

As the annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue takes place, Zhang Zhixin discusses the current status of China-U.S. relations. Zhixin characterizes the U.S. as acting antagonistically toward China and cites various instances. He also emphasizes the importance of acting to quickly alleviate recent tensions between the two powers at this year’s S&ED.

Tim Robbins’ recent rendition of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in Beijing attempted to relate to present-day waves of violence throughout the world by emphasizing a need for ‘the power of love’, but given the turmoil in Eastern Europe, Thailand, the Middle East, and in China’s maritime vicinity, the concept of ‘order’ might be a more necessary emphasis.

In light of President Obama’s commencement speech at West Point, Minxin Pei analyzes and discusses various facets of the talk. Specifically, Pei points to four themes in President Obama’s speech as particularly poignant, and spends the bulk of the essay discussing them.

Given recent territorial moves by China, as well as heightened aggressive rhetoric, Curtis Chin analyzes the parallels between China currently and Japan as it existed in the past. Additionally, Chin asserts that the world’s powers should work to lower tensions so that peace and prosperity can exist in the Asia-Pacific region.

Given China’s participation in the 2014 RIMPAC exercises, Doug Bandow analyzes and discusses the benefits of such inclusion. Additionally, Bandow examines how the RIMPAC exercises show that China can and should be enticed into involvement and cooperation with Western nations.

Given the ‘pivot to Asia’ policy that has been executed by the Obama administration, Stephen Harner discusses its various negative implications. In addition to his assessment of the policy’s shortcomings, Harner also asserts that the Obama administration needs to reverse entirely this ‘pivot to Asia’ policy. Such a policy reversal, according to Harner, would create stability in Asia.

Using the sci-fi film, Pacific Rim, as a backdrop, Zhao Weibin compares cooperation between the United States and China to that of the connection shared between the pilots of the machines designed to fight Kaijus. Weibin argues that there are many issues that China and the U.S. can work to solve mutually through RIMPAC 2014.