April 03,2018 Open Forum

Understanding the Challenge from China

The Trump administration’s National Security Strategy (NSS) characterizes China as a “revisionist power” that is “attempting to erode American security and prosperity” and “shape a world antithetical to US values and interests.”1 The accompanying National Defense Strategy (NDS) adds that Beijing seeks “veto authority over other nations’ economic, diplomatic, and security decisions” and is modernizing […]

Paul Heer
Century of humiliation , China Dream , Kuomintang , May Fourth movement , Socialism with Chinese Characteristics
March 01,2018 Open Forum

With Friends Like These: Japan-ROK Cooperation and US Policy

Although they share a common ally, history and politics keep Japan and South Korea at arm’s length and severely limit their defense cooperation. Since at least the mid-1990s, American realists—and not a few Japanese and South Korean analysts—have anticipated that the regional environment, growing steadily more dangerous, would bring these status quo democracies closer together, […]

Eric Heginbotham , Richard Samuels
comfort women , Dokdo/Takeshima , GSOMIA , Three Eyes , Yasukuni
February 19,2018 Open Forum

China’s Discourse of “Civilization”: Visions of Past, Present, and Future

In early 2017, Chinese president Xi Jinping gave a speech at a domestic national security seminar in which he boldly stated his aspiration to have China take on leadership of a new global order in a “post-Western era.”1 In this speech, he used the word “civilization” or “civilized” (wenming) three times: once to refer to […]

Alison Kaufman
Century of humiliation , Chinese civilization , Chinese Communist Party , community of common destiny
February 19,2018 Open Forum

How and Why Japan Has Saved the TPP: From Trump Tower to Davos

The Trump administration has employed “America First” as its defining electoral and governing slogan, viewing economic openness and globalization as harmful to US jobs and industrial competitiveness. It regards trade surpluses as evidence of winning and deficits as evidence of losing; the stated goal is consequently bilateral trade deals as the optimal approach to reduce […]

Terada Takashi*
Abenomics , America First , Japan-EU EPA , Japan-US FTA , RCEP , TPP , TPP-11
January 04,2018 Open Forum

Washington Insights: December 2017

Confusion reigns with scant clarification by the oft-dysfunctional US government. The preoccupation with Trump’s tweets and statements persists, obscuring other points of analysis of East Asian matters. North Korea is a perpetual concern. At last, new appointees in the State Department and the Department of Defense are giving some hope of professional competence to the […]

Editorial Staff
Donald Trump , Indo-Pacific strategy , KORUS FTA , Russiagate
December 23,2017 Open Forum

Expanding US-India Geoeconomic Cooperation Amid China’s Belt and Road Initiative

The United States and India have an opportunity to co-define and co-implement a geoeconomic vision for the Indo-Pacific, based on shared values of freedom and transparency. However, formidable obstacles remain to overcome. Efforts from the United States have been ad hoc and at times self-defeating, such as withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. […]

Daniel Kliman , Manpreet S. Anand
BRI , China Pakistan Economic Corridor , Indo-Pacific Economic Corridor , String of Pearls Strategy , TPP
December 08,2017 Open Forum

Russia’s North Korea Policy: The Logic and Dilemma of Assisting North Korea

In seeking bilateral negotiations with North Korea, Japan focused on the abduction issue. It tried to steer the Six-Party Talks toward a comprehensive solution to this problem, as well as to the missile and nuclear threats from North Korea. And it has stuck close to the United States as it ramped up pressure on the […]

Yoko Hirose
Hwasong-15 , Moonshine Policy , Otto Warmbier , Six-Party Talks , state sponsor of terrorism
December 05,2017 Open Forum

Sanctions and Nuclear Weapons are Changing North Korea

Sanctions are changing North Korea but not in ways expected by the world community imposing them, or by the Kim regime that is fighting them. Clearly, they have not yet succeeded in stopping North Korea’s nuclear program and, arguably, not even slowed it. But equally clear is North Korea’s increasing isolation from the global economy […]

William B. Brown
Byongjin , Economic sanctions , Juche , secondary sanctions , UN Security Council Resolution 2375
October 23,2017 Open Forum

The Eastern Economic Forum September 2017: What to Make of It?

For the third straight year in early September Vladimir Putin traveled to Vladivostok for an international forum with ambitious aspirations. Three objectives stood in the forefront: 1) to spur development of the Russian Far East, thereby solidifying the continued sovereignty by Russia over this distant and sparsely settled frontier; 2) to “integrate” Russia into the […]

Gilbert Rozman
Keywords: economic development , security policy