Agriculture has often been a stumbling block in free trade negotiations. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), often seen as the economic component of the Obama Administration’s “Asia pivot,” is no exception. Can Japan’s leadership, which has indicated a willingness to join the TPP, surmount resistance from its domestic agricultural lobby? Is the TPP attractive to countries like Korea, which has enthusiastically negotiated separate bilateral free trade agreements, most notably with the United States? What are the problems and opportunities in the agreement for American agricultural producers? How do nations like New Zealand, an agricultural powerhouse and original member of the TPP, view the negotiating positions of potential new members to the agreement?

Former Wilson Center Australia Scholar James Cotton reflected on Australian foreign policy since 2006. Australian Ambassador Kim Beazley made introductory comments.

Climate change "could be the straw that breaks the camel's back" for California's precarious water system, says W. Michael Hanemann of the University of California, Berkeley. Jon Barnett discusses some of Australia's policy responses to its increasingly dry, variable climate.