February 15,2021 National Commentaries

Reviving the US –Japan alliance

The year 2021 is likely to be frustrating for the US-Japan alliance.1 The return of a process-oriented, alliance-centered decision-maker to the White House has relieved alliance managers and supporters in both Washington and Tokyo. The more pointless irritants in the bilateral relationship will be removed. Business as usual can resume as national security bureaucrats in both countries will be..

Brad Glosserman
COVID-19 , free and open Indo-Pacific , Joe Biden , National Security Strategy , Nuclear Posture Review , Suga Yoshihide , trilateralism
February 15,2021 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (February 2021)

The end of 2020 and beginning of 2021 saw Japan in a wait-and-see mood: knowing that Joe Biden would be the US president and that Suga Yoshihide would sustain the legacy of Abe Shinzo, but unsure what Biden’s approach would be on the most sensitive issues or whether there would be the right kind of personal chemistry between the two leaders, which is viewed as vital in Japan. Fear of ab..

Editorial Staff
comfort women , COVID-19 , free and open Indo-Pacific , Joe Biden , Quad , TPP , US-China rivalry
February 02,2021 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (January 2021)

Russian analysis at the end of 2020 and start of 2021 made clear Russia’s reality of becoming a junior partner to China, which was starting to eclipse the obsession with not being respected by the United States. On the one hand, two assumptions were widely acknowledged: that with Joe Biden in charge, Russo-US relations would further deteriorate, and that after Vladimir Putin broached th..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)
COVID-19 , free and open Indo-Pacific , Greater Eurasia , Joe Biden , Kurile Islands , Quad , RCEP
February 02,2021 Open Forum

Biden’s Asia Policymakers

Despite credit given to Donald Trump for toughening US policy toward China and even trying a new approach to North Korea, his approach to the Indo-Pacific was roundly condemned for: poor choice of officials and little coordination; disruption of alliances with distrust of multilateralism; discordant messages with idiosyncratic goals; and little presidential presence or articulation of values...

Editorial Staff
COVID-19 , free and open Indo-Pacific , Joe Biden , Quad Plus , Sharp power , US-ROK aliance
January 21,2021 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (January 2021)

Attention drifted in November 2020 to January 2021 from the election of Joe Biden in the US to the visit of Chinese foreign Minister Wang Yi to action against the spreading of leaflets into North Korea to the handling of court decisions central to the dispute with Japan over the legacy of its occupation of Korea. Thus, fleeting concern with each of the four relationships at the core of Sout..

Sanghwa Hong
Anti-leaflet law , comfort women , COVID-19 , GSOMIA , Joe Biden , THAAD
December 30,2020 Special Forum

Introduction

There is every expectation that Joe Biden will replace Donald Trump’s diplomacy, with stress on multilateralism. In Europe, this clearly means a reemphasis on NATO. In the Indo-Pacific region, three options—which are not mutually exclusive—stand apart: trilateralism with Japan and South Korea; the Quad with Japan, Australia, and India; and outreach to China in search of a format for..

Editorial Staff
free and open Indo-Pacific , the Quad , US-China rivalry , US-DPRK diplomacy , values diplomacy
December 30,2020 Special Forum

Challenges to Biden’s pursuit of trilateralism

Trilateralism is the term used for US-Japan-ROK close strategic cooperation and understanding. For Tokyo and Seoul, trilateralism requires a fundamental reconceptualization of both national interests and national identities in the region closest to home—Northeast Asia. For Tokyo, the narrative toward this region has been driven by three symbols of identity: 1) slighting the 1990s Kono S..

Gilbert Rozman
ASEAN centrality , free and open Indo-Pacific , THAAD , the Quad , trilateralism , US-China rivalry , Wolf Warrior Diplomacy
December 30,2020 Special Forum

America’s Indo-Pacific challenge

This article has been updated on February 4. Competing with China is the foremost external policy challenge for the new US administration of President Joe Biden. More precisely, the problem is how to manage China’s power and assertiveness in a state of what incoming National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell have called “competitive coexis..

Rory Medcalf
ASEAN , COVID-19 , free and open Indo-Pacific , US-China rivalry
December 28,2020 Country Reports

Country Report: China (December 2020)

In the fall of 2020, Chinese analysts assessed US and Japanese policies in light of recent anti-globalization trends and made predictions about the United States’ near-term relations with its allies. They also examined the Japan–Russia bilateral relationship by considering the legacy of the Abe administration and the likely future under Suga. They continued to evaluate the implicat..

Danielle F. S. Cohen (assisted by Dong Jiaxin)
ASEAN , COVID-19 , CPTPP , RCEP , trilateralism , US-China rivalry
December 10,2020 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (November 2020)

The late fall of 2020 was eventful for Japanese foreign relations because it meant the start of a new relationship with a US president—this time with a new Japanese prime minister; renewal of diplomacy with China—more intent than before on driving a wedge between Japan and the US; the signing of a broad trade agreement—RCEP was perceived as giving China greater clout even as China ra..

Editorial Staff
ASEAN , free and open Indo-Pacific , Hong Kong , RCEP , Senkakus , South China Sea , Tokyo Olympics , TPP , US-China rivalry