Special Forum

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Rethinking ASEAN in Light of the South China Sea Tensions

Jul 31,2015 Special Forum

Introduction to the Special Forum

ASEAN is an organization that symbolizes regionalism, collective action for the management of great power relations, and harmonious handling of civilizational and economic differences. It reached its pinnacle in the late 1990s and 2000s. Now it is struggling to play the expected, outsize role in all of these dimensions. In conditions of increased Chinese assertiveness and pushback from the United ..

Editorial Staff
ASEAN centrality , code of conduct , Regionalism , South China Sea , US-China rivalry
Jul 31,2015 Special Forum

The Impact of South China Sea (SCS) Tensions on ASEAN: An “Eye-of-the-Beholder” Dilemma

An evaluation of the impact of SCS disputes on ASEAN at this critical juncture in its evolution depends, fundamentally, upon what one thinks ASEAN is all about. Individual ASEAN member-states adopted a charter in 2008 that lays out the organization’s formal objectives. A centerpiece is that ASEAN will become a single economic and political-security community. But leading experts still disagree o..

Satu Limaye
ASEAN unity , Regionalism , South China Sea
Jul 31,2015 Special Forum

ASEAN’s Failing Grade in the South China Sea

Since around 2008, a worrying disconnect has been readily apparent in the South China Sea. On the one hand, competing claims to ownership of disputed atolls and their adjacent maritime space has led to growing discord between China and several countries in Southeast Asia, especially Vietnam and the Philippines, and propelled the problem to the top of Southeast Asia’s security agenda. In the past..

Ian Storey
ASEAN unity , code of conduct , Regionalism , Spratly Islands , UNCLOS

Open Forum

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Aug 18,2015 Open Forum

Striking the Twenty-first Century Trade Agreement: The Case of Intellectual Property in the Trans-Pacific Partnership and US-Northeast Asian Economic Relations

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations are reaching their final stage. There is a good chance that they will be concluded within a month or two. While this economic pact presents new directions toward solidifying US linkages to the Asia-Pacific region, the contents of the negotiations—particularly on intellectual property (IP) and investment—present future challenges to US economic relat..

June Park
Economic Relations , Intellectual property , Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement , Trans-Pacific Partnership
Aug 18,2015 Open Forum

Russia, China and the Emerging Greater Eurasia

Russia and China drawing together is an unmistakable phenomenon in today’s international relations. Is it a result of deteriorated Russo-US and Sino-US relations or does it have more fundamental origins? How is it altering the evolving structure of international relations? To these questions, both in Russia and abroad, diverse, and at times, contradictory opinions have been expressed. Russians w..

Alexander Lukin
Economic Relations , International law , National security , Silk Road Economic Belt , sovereignty , Ukraine crisis
Aug 13,2015 Open Forum

The Politics of “Struggling Co-evolution“: Trade, Power, and Vision in Vietnam’s Relations with China

China’s increasing presence, economically and militarily, has the potential to lead to a Chinese sphere of influence in which Southeast Asia is regarded as China’s “backyard.” For realist scholars, China’s regional leadership constitutes an irresistible outcome of its technology, military forces, economic scale, and population. Among them, military and economic indicators are the two cru..

Vu Truong-Minh*
Asymmetric trade , Great Mekong Sub-region , National security , South China Sea , Yarn Forward

National Commentaries

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"The Iran Nuclear Deal and the North Korean Nuclear Issue"

Aug 03,2015 National Commentaries

A Russian Commentary

"The Iran Nuclear Deal and the North Korean Nuclear Issue"   Russian policymakers, academics, and pundits who believe that the Iran deal was good and Russia stands to benefit from it recommend that this multilateral bargaining experience be replicated in disabling Pyongyang’s nuclear program. Those who regard it as the Kremlin’s defeat and fear Russia’s subsequent geopol..

Alexandre Y. Mansourov
Crimea annexation , Iran nuclear deal , National security
Aug 03,2015 National Commentaries

An American Commentary

"The Iran Nuclear Deal and the North Korean Nuclear Issue"   The international nuclear agreement with Iran has generated some speculation about the potential for resurrecting similar negotiations with North Korea. Indeed, the Obama administration’s dramatic shifts in policy toward Burma, Cuba, and now Iran might suggest an analogous gesture toward Pyongyang. But, while a des..

Bruce Klingner
National security , Six-Party Talks , Snap-back clause , Sony hacking
Aug 03,2015 National Commentaries

A South Korean Commentary

"The Iran Nuclear Deal and the North Korean Nuclear Issue"   The nuclear deal reached in Vienna on July 14 between Iran and the six world powers, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany (P5+1), is historic in more than one way. Beyond constraining Iran’s capabilities for nuclear armament, it will have far-reaching implications for the geopolitics of..

Chun Yungwoo*
IAEA , National security , September 19 Joint Statement of 2005 , Six-Party , Talks

Alternative Scenarios

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Jun 12,2015 Alternative Scenarios

The Sino-Russian-North Korean Northern Triangle

There has been much recent talk about strengthening Sino-Russian relations, but few have considered the implications for their policies toward North Korea. In this exchange of views, we present the arguments for the revival of a triangle linking the three in opposition to the US-ROK-Japanese triangle, and we follow with arguments to the contrary. This leads us to reflect on the Cold War principles..

Editorial Staff

Country Reports

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Aug 18,2015 Country Reports

Country Report: China (August 2015)

Chinese articles in recent months have been unambiguous in asserting Chinese positions on issues in the forefront of international relations. They offer telling insights into the thinking behind official rhetoric on India’s more energetic foreign policy, South Korea’s pursuit of middle power diplomacy as in Park’s appeal for a Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative (NAPCI), Sino-US ..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Dong Jiaxin*)
Economic Relations , Middle Power Diplomacy , National security , Sino-US Relations
Aug 13,2015 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (August 2015)

Japan-Russia Relations Relations with Russia appeared to be back on track in the first part of the summer. Plans for Putin to visit Japan were going forward despite unconcealed disapproval by the Obama administration. Japanese writers held out hope for trouble in Sino-Russian relations in the face of many signs to the contrary. Abe’s determination to pursue an independent foreign policy at th..

Editorial Staff
Japan-ROK tensions , Japan-US alliance , National security , Putin-Abe summit , South China Sea
Jul 29,2015 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (July 2015)

Russian publications have turned decisively to the establishment of a new world order opposed to US-led “vertical globalization.” It centers on Asia, capitalizing on North Korea to influence South Korea’s choices, assuming close Sino-Russian ties at the core of the new order, and envisioning the BRICS and SCO summits as building blocks. Contemptuous of the notion that Russia is isolated, art..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)
BRICS , Economic Relations , North Korea , Regionalism , SCO , US-Sino rivalry

Review Article

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Aug 18,2015 Review Article

‘Ukeikasuru Nihon seiji’ (‘Japan’s Politics Leaning to the Right’)

Nakano Koichi, Ukeikasuru Nihon seiji (Japan’s Politics Leaning to the Right), (Tokyo: Iwanami Shinsho, 2015) On the day when the “Abe statement” in commemoration of the seventieth anniversary of the end of WWII is issued, this review article considers one Japanese critic’s analysis of what lies behind the statement. After all, Abe is but the most recent, if also far the most prominen..

Gilbert Rozman
Kokkashugi , Liberal Democratic Party , National identity , National security , Revisionism