Special Forum

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"The Revenge of History and International Relations in East Asia"

Jul 25,2014 Special Forum

Introduction to Special Forum

Economists, political scientists, and sociologists greeted developments at the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s with acclamation that their theoretical views were proven correct and those of marginalized social scientists and area specialists were now disposable. Communism in all its assaults on freedom was passe, as were Sovietologists and those who had concentrated on “Maoist China...

Editorial Staff
contradictory transitional thinking , elite continuity , historical memories , symbolic pretexts

Open Forum

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Aug 11,2014 Open Forum

Southeast Asia’s Developing Divide

The Asan Forum’s introductory Topics of the Month article on the present state of Northeast Asian strategic competition and regionalism by Sergey Radchenko shares much in common with this article. The authors summarized in Multilateralism in Northeast Asia I contend that: 1) there are developing geostrategic divides in Northeast Asia just as the Cold War divided the region; 2) the causes of the ..

Malcolm Cook
ASEAN rebalancing , developing divide , foreign direct investment , FTAs , maritime-continental divide , multilateralism , Regionalism , Southeast Asia
Aug 11,2014 Open Forum

What to Make of Xi Jinping’s Vision for Asian Security?

In May 2014, presidents Obama and Xi both gave important national security addresses. At West Point, Obama presented a broad vision for the future of US global leadership, where he stated that the United States, “from Europe to Asia,” remains the “hub of alliances unrivaled in the history of nations.”1 In Shanghai, speaking at a summit of the Conference on Confidence-Building Measures in A..

Joel Wuthnow
CICA , major venue diplomacy , Maritime Silk Road , New Silk Road , peripheral diplomacy , SCO , vision for Asian security

National Commentaries

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"Perspectives on Sino-Russian Relations"

Jul 25,2014 National Commentaries

US Perspective

"Sino-Russian Relations"   The Ukraine Crisis and the Future of Sino-Russian Relations President Vladimir Putin has described the improvement of relations with Beijing as one of his major foreign policy accomplishments. While this rapprochement has had concrete economic and political benefits, Russia tended to view relations with China instrumentally, using China as a “card..

Jeffrey Mankoff
Anti-Western sentiment , Arms sales , Central Asia , CICA , Eurasian Union , financial sanctions , gas pipeline , naval maneuvers , revisionist axis , SCO
Jul 25,2014 National Commentaries

French Perspective

"Sino-Russian Relations"   China-Russia Partnership: Perceptions in Beijing and Tokyo According to Beijing and Moscow, relations between China and Russia have never been better. One could argue, however, that the solidity and future of the “global strategic partnership” between Moscow and Beijing can be questioned. In spite of a series of common interests on the global sc..

Valerie Niquet
Balance of power , divergent threat perceptions , G2 , Putin’s visit to Japan , Russia’s double game , soft balancing , Southeast Asia , the EU
Jul 25,2014 National Commentaries

Chinese Perspective

"Sino-Russian Relations"   My View on Contemporary China-Russia Relations Since the beginning of 2014, the Ukrainian crisis has become the hottest international issue, captivating public attention from around the world. It is fair to say that the Ukrainian conflict has been one of the major crises in international relations since the end of the Cold War. It has serious repercus..

Feng Yujun*
BRICS , CICA , Gas deal , informal alliance , pivot to Asia , Ukraine

Topics of the Month

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Jul 11,2014 Topics of the Month

Multilateralism in Northeast Asia – 2

No one has profited more from the decline of multilateralism in East Asia than North Korea. Russia’s international isolation and China’s simmering confrontation with Japan over the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands have given Kim Jong-un much greater breathing space than his father and grandfather had had at any time since the late 1980s. In recent weeks Pyongyang has made an effort to shift clo..

Sergey Radchenko
Central Asia , color revolutions , Eurasian Union vs. new silk road , islands to Japan , polarization vs. multilateralism , Putin-Xi summit , ROK promise to Russia , unequal trade
Jul 11,2014 Topics of the Month

India’s New Leadership and East Asia – 2

Protracted Contest: India-China Relations in the 21st Century The history of Indian foreign policy and Sino-Indian relations suggests that India will not concede to live under Chinese dominion in a unipolar Asia. John Garver is correct to point out that the success of national revitalization policies by Narendra Modi in India and Abe Shinzo in Japan will do much to determine the degree of multi..

Daniel Twining
exceptionalism , external balancing , India , military budgets , Modi , threat perceptions

Country Reports

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Aug 31,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: China (August 2014)

An article by Sun Ru in Zhongguo zhoubian distributed in its August 2014 posting took a close look at the US-Japan-South Korea triangle as it was strengthened by the three-way summit in March. It explained that the United States occupies the leading position in this triangle and has succeeded in temporarily getting the other two states to recommit to the triangular framework and support its rebala..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Dong Jiaxin*)
Arms trade , CK FTA , equilibrium , hegemonic thinking , India , public relations battle , Six-Party Talks , Southeast Asia , values-based diplomacy , Xi-Park Summit
Jul 25,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (July 2014)

New Russian articles suggest that South Korea’s foreign policy is more intriguing than previously anticipated. Explaining that there is talk today of forging a new system of global governance, an article in the June issue of Mezhdunarodnaia zhizn’ argues that the responsibility is rising for South Korea, with its important interests in the geopolitics and geoeconomics of the Korean Peninsula. ..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)
Gas deal , global governance , New Cold War , New Silk Road , SCO , Sino-Russian alliance , soft integration , threat from the West , Trustpolitik , Ukraine
Jul 11,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (July 2014)

Northeast Asia’s geopolitical tensions have intensified and grown more complicated over the past two months. The Cold War-era legacy of contention between South Korea, the United States, and Japan on one side and China and North Korea on the other has become blurred. President Xi Jinping became the first Chinese leader to visit Seoul before Pyongyang, and Japan lifted certain unilateral economic..

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)
Balanced diplomacy , horizontal and vertical alliance , Kono statement diplomatic record , Park-Xi Summit , serving as a bridge , Xi history speech

Review Article

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