This quarterly issue of Direction of Trade Statistics (DOTS) provides, for about 160 countries, tables with current data (or estimates) on the value of imports from and exports to their most important trading partners. The yearbook and quarterly issues of the DOTS publication provide tables with current reported data (or estimates) on the value of merchandise trade statistics (exports and imports) by partner country for all IMF members. In addition, similar summary tables for the world, industrial countries, and developing countries are included. The yearbook provides, for the most recent seven years, detailed trade data by country for approximately 184 countries, the world, and major areas. Other countries may report monthly data that are less current, or the information may be compiled and made available in quarterly or annual frequency. For some countries, the data reported to the United Nations Statistical Division also have been used. Estimation occurs if a reporting country does not report trade with its partners for a specific period. In order to provide guidance regarding the sources of the figures for individual countries, figures in the country, world, and area pages are shown with symbols to the right of the figure.

This paper discusses that Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) have been allocated by the IMF to members that are participants in the SDR Department (at the time of allocation) in proportion to their quotas in the IMF. Six allocations, totaling 21.4 billion SDR, were made by the IMF in 1970, 1971, 1972, 1979, 1980, and 1981. In addition, a general allocation of 161.2 billion SDR was made on August 28, 2009, and a special allocation of 21.5 billion SDR was made on September 9, 2009. The IMF cannot allocate SDRs to itself, but can receive them from members through various financial transactions and operations. Entities authorized to conduct transactions in SDRs are the IMF itself, participants in the SDR Department, and other prescribed holders. The SDR can be used for a wide range of transactions and operations, including for acquiring other members’ currencies, settling financial obligations, making donations, and extending loans.

International Financial Statistics, Database & Browser, February 2017

This November 2018 issue of International Financial Statistics (IFS) is a standard source of statistics on all aspects of international and domestic finance. IFS, Balance of Payments Statistics, Direction of Trade Statistics, and Government Finance Statistics are available on CD-ROM by annual subscription. The CD-ROMs incorporate a Windows-based browser facility, as well as a flat file of the database in scientific notation. The country tables normally include data on a country’s exchange rates, IMF position, international liquidity, monetary statistics, interest rates, prices, production, labor, international transactions, government accounts, national accounts, and population. Selected series, including data on IMF accounts, international reserves, and international trade, are drawn from the country tables and published in world tables as well. The monthly printed issue of IFS reports current monthly, quarterly, and annual data, while the yearbook reports 12 observations of annual data. In IFS, exchange rates are expressed in time series of national currency units per SDR and national currency units per US dollar, or vice versa.

This book offers a diverse set of perspectives on the current state of Taiwan’s economy and international relations, equally considering the challenges and opportunities that could forge Taiwan’s future. Featuring a range of interdisciplinary approaches, this edited volume has been written by some of the leading scholars on Taiwan’s economy and international relations, as well as emerging scholars and writers with practical diplomatic, political, and civil society experience. Contributors cover themes from political economy and international relations to gender studies and civil society-led LGBT diplomacy. Readers will benefit from chapters outlining both the historical overview of Taiwan’s development and more recent developments, with several chapters offering focused case studies into Taiwan’s economy and international space. A balanced set of conclusions are reached, affording scope for both optimism and pessimism about Taiwan’s prospects. Taiwan's Economic and Diplomatic Challenges and Opportunities will appeal to students and scholars of international relations, economics, and Taiwan studies.

The Asia-Pacific Regional Security Assessment examines key regional security issues relevant to the policy-focused discussions of the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s premier defence summit convened by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. It is published and launched at the Dialogue and the issues analysed within its covers are central to discussions at the event. Since February 2022, the war in Ukraine has provided a bleak backdrop for discussions about international security. While the war has affected many aspects of security and defence in the Asia-Pacific, the region also has its own dynamics, and important security-related developments have occurred there since the invasion. Among these, China’s ever-growing power and increasingly assertive posture remain the leading long-term challenges for the region. This tenth edition of the Asia-Pacific Regional Security Assessment contains an introduction and six chapters, authored by IISS experts, which investigate important dimensions of the regional security environment, supported by maps, graphs, charts and tables. Topics include: the war in Ukraine and the Asia-Pacific balance of power; strained US- China relations and the growing threat to Taiwan; Asia-Pacific naval and maritime capabilities; China’s Belt and Road Initiative; Japanese security and defence policy; and the conflict in Myanmar and the international response. Authors include leading regional analysts and academics at the forefront of research and analysis: James Crabtree, Euan Graham, Nigel Inkster, Nick Childs, Meia Nouwens, Robert Ward, Yuka Koshino, Aaron Connelly and Shona Loong

As China and the U.S. increasingly compete for power in key areas of U.S. influence, great power conflict looms. Yet few studies have looked to the Middle East and Africa, regions of major political, economic, and military importance for both China and the U.S., to theorize how China competes in a changing world system. China's Rise in the Global South examines China's behavior as a rising power in two key Global South regions, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. Dawn C. Murphy, drawing on extensive fieldwork and hundreds of interviews, compares and analyzes thirty years of China's interactions with these regions across a range of functional areas: political, economic, foreign aid, and military. From the Belt and Road initiative to the founding of new cooperation forums and special envoys, China's Rise in the Global South offers an in-depth look at China's foreign policy approach to the countries it considers its partners in South-South cooperation. Intervening in the emerging debate between liberals and realists about China's future as a great power, Murphy contends that China is constructing an alternate international order to interact with these regions, and this book provides policymakers and scholars of international relations with the tools to analyze it.

This book explores the U.S.-China maritime relationship, examining the development and implementation of the maritime strategies of both the United States and China. Delving into the U.S.-China maritime relationship within the global context, the book investigates six key maritime regions: the South China Sea, the Northeast Asia waters (the East China Sea, the Yellow Sea), the Indian Ocean, the South Pacific Ocean, as well as the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Its observations form a comprehensive exploration of these regions and their significance in shaping the dynamics between the two nations, and this analysis reveals that an expanded view is necessary to discover and clearly display the role that these maritime regions currently—and could potentially—play in overarching U.S.-China relations. Examining both the ongoing conflicts and opportunities for cooperation in the global maritime domain between the United States and China, this book will be a valuable resource to students and scholars of international relations, Chinese and U.S. politics, strategic studies, and maritime studies.

The IISS Strategic Dossier China’s Belt and Road Initiative provides a geopolitical and geo-economic assessment of President Xi Jinping’s flagship foreign-policy initiative. The dossier explores the Belt and Road Initiative’s role in China’s domestic industrial strategy and in the country’s growing influence around the world. It studies how Beijing’s ambitions, management and financing of the initiative have evolved since its launch in 2013. In addition, the volume reflects on the future of China’s initiative following the COVID-19 pandemic. The dossier is organised around a region by region assessment of what Beijing has sought to achieve in different countries and how the Belt and Road Initiative has played out over time. The volume examines recipient countries’ responses to the Belt and Road Initiative and how these have affected it. It also looks at responses from other global and regional powers to China’s economic activities around the world and offers thoughts on ways the West might better contend with Beijing’s geo-economic influence.

"We have continued to evolve the structure and content of this textbook in step with the rapidly changing world of international business. This includes completely revising several key chapters, including Chapter 6, on International Trade. This is entirely updated and includes new case studies covering both the trade-war between the US and China and the complex Brexit process. These and other real-world developments have made a wide range of stakeholders much more aware of the significance of global trade interdependencies than in the past. Chapter 16 on the European Union is also entirely updated to take account of Brexit and a range of new socio-political and economic events in Europe. Chapter 11 ('MNEs as Responsible Stakeholders') has been removed, making this edition more consolidated,with 20 rather than 21 chapters. In place of Chapter 11 we have inserted new sections, frameworks and case studies on responsible business throughout the book as a fundamental dimension of international businesstheory and practice across all the other chapters. New case studies, such as 'Businesses and NGOs working together on climate change' in Chapter 4, provideadditional material on this topic. Chapter 14, on 'Political risk and negotiation strategy' also features new case studies on the 'US-Venezuela oil dispute' and 'Huaweiaccused of spying'"