July 24,2018 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (July 2018)

Zero-sum reasoning prevailed in Russian writings. The United States is the enemy, and it must be weakened, which authors take satisfaction is happening. A contradictory approach to Trump is apparent: he is fighting valiantly against vested US interests, but his actions are contributing to a rapid decline in US influence. Optimism for Russia centers on its prospects for filling some of the v..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)
AIIB , BRI , CVID , EEU , Khasan-Rajin railway , SCO , Trump-Kim summit
July 19,2018 Open Forum

Balancing China & Transcending Pax-Americana: India and Japan as Emerging Strategic Bookends

In late May 2018, the Japanese press announced that Japan’s Self-Defense Forces are finalizing plans to conduct counter-terrorism exercises with the Indian army in the northeast part of India later in the year1—the first overseas combat training exercise of its kind for the traditionally homebound Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF). In July 2017, an India-Japan agreement for cooperation..

Thomas F. Lynch III
Act East Policy , Confluence of the two seas , Indo-Pacific , Look East , Malabar exercise , nonalignment strategy
July 02,2018 National Commentaries

Opening a Strategic Pandora’s Jar? US-China Uncertainties and the Three Wandering Genies in Southeast Asia

Uncertainty is nothing new in US-China relations. Indeed, it is a constant feature of all big power relationships. However, recent US-China interactions under Donald Trump and Xi Jinping have heightened uncertainties at multiple fronts, with an intensity that increasingly pushes the US allies and partners around Asia—including those in Southeast Asia—to reassess their fundamental outlooks..

Kuik Cheng-Chwee*
BRI , Doklam , free and open Indo-Pacific , G7 , Quad , RIMPAC , SCO
June 30,2018 Special Forum

Introduction

On June 12 when Donald Trump met in Singapore with Kim Jong-un, the other four countries in the earlier Six-Party Talks faced a new diplomatic environment, not only with North Korea, but also with the United States. Anticipating since March a tectonic shift in the framework for this region, especially in contrast to the alarming security concerns of 2017, these countries found themselves in..

Gilbert Rozman
Moon-Kim summit , Singapore Statement , Trump-Kim summit , Xi-Kim summit
June 29,2018 Special Forum

US-Japan Relations

In the aftermath of the June 8-9 G7 summit in Charlevoix, Canada, which collapsed under the weight of President Donald Trump’s tariff tantrum, a photograph circulated—courtesy of German chancellor Angela Merkel’s twitter account—that captured the mood of the meeting.1 In the picture, Trump is seated, arms crossed, gazing placidly ahead, as European leaders, Merkel most closely,..

Brad Glosserman
CPTPP , free and open Indo-Pacific , Japan passing , Singapore Statement , Trump-Kim summit , US-Japan alliance
June 20,2018 Country Reports

Country Report: China (June 2018)

In the spring of 2018, Chinese experts reacted to the Kim–Trump summit and evaluated the prospects for resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis, assessed South Korea’s role in East Asian politics, and evaluated Australia’s increasingly interventionist South China Sea policy. They also examined Trump’s China policy and analyzed how the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) illust..

Danielle F. S. Cohen (assisted by Dong Jiaxin)
AIIB , BRI , Kim-Trump summit , South China Sea , THAAD , US-South Korea alliance
June 07,2018 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (June 2018)

Kawakami Takashi in Kaigai Jijo No. 3-4, linked Trump’s chaos to America’s decline, leading to a breakdown in the world order. Giving rise to this is the power shift between Washington and Beijing, which is accompanied by a civilizational transfer from the West. US fatigue from the fight against terrorism has accelerated this shift. Instead of ideology, civilizational elements a..

Editorial Staff
Abe-Trump summit , BRI , China-Japan-Korea summit , Deal diplomacy , free and open Indo-Pacific , RCEP , trade war
April 30,2018 Open Forum

Washington Insights: April 2018

The pace of change was overwhelming in the final weeks of winter and the first month of spring. Moon Jae-in appeared to be in the driver’s seat, but he was counting on Kim Jong-un to keep the momentum building. Abe Shinzo was desperate to shore up relations with Donald Trump, rushing to visit the United States in mid-April, and succeeded at last in arranging the China-Japan-South Kore..

Editorial Staff
China-Japan-South Korea summit , inter-Korean summit , Kim-Xi summit , Pax Sinica , Trump-Kim summit
April 19,2018 Alternative Scenarios

Negative Scenario II

Jennifer Lind has sketched positive prospects for South Korean-Japanese relations and the history issue. She broadly finds that geopolitical pressures will overwhelm historical narratives of animosity or re-write them in such a way as to be useful for current geopolitical needs. This is a realist and instrumentalist approach to historical disputes. The substance of the disputes may be genuine..

Robert Kelly
anti-Japanism , comfort women , Dokdo/Takeshima , Park Geun-hye