June 13,2014 Open Forum

China’s Charm Offensive to Korea: A New Approach to Extend the Strategic Buffer

It is understood that peace and stability have been China’s major security interest on the Korean Peninsula for many centuries. Given its strategic location and its geographical proximity, the peninsula has been recognized by Chinese leaders as the core strategic area for protecting China’s vital security interests and maintaining regional stability. Traditionally China has identified Sino-Kor..

Han Sukhee*
Ahn Jung-geun , Charm offensive , competition for influence , hedging , Jan Song-Thaek , Kim Jong-un , periphery diplomacy , public opinion
June 13,2014 Open Forum

Why Values Matter in Australia’s Relations with China

Returning to Australia last year after five or six years away I had a Rip Van Winkle moment. Back in 2007, Wall Street was awash with cash, Europe was booming, and China was humming along. Today China is still humming and Australia’s economy is ticking along in harmony. That much could be predicted. What I had not appreciated was that China’s growing momentum was being felt in Australia well b..

John Fitzgerald
Australia , Central Propaganda Bureau , immigrants , surveillance , trade-security linkage , UN Declaration of Human Rights , universal values
June 13,2014 Open Forum

South Korea’s Place in China’s Foreign Policy Discourse

Xi Jinping’s foreign policy agenda for the next ten years envisions a “new type of major power relations” (xinxing daguo guanxi) and proactive, “peripheral diplomacy” (zhoubian waijiao) with neighboring countries. What do these initiatives mean for China’s relations with South Korea? Chinese official and scholarly assessments of the Xi leadership’s current policy directives elucidate..

See-Won Byun
history cooperation , new type of major power relations , peripheral diplomacy , political distrust , US-ROK alliance
May 23,2014 Topics of the Month

Multilateralism in Northeast Asia – 1

In Northeast Asia the search for multilateralism has taken an abrupt turn. In the 2000s the Six-Party Talks gave hope that North Korea would bring five other states together, tying security and economic multilateralism together and offering the default position of five plus one to keep pressure on the North and keep common interests in the forefront. In the 2010s, especially in 2014, the US allian..

Sergey Radchenko
Central Asia , civilizational debates , comrades , natural resource appendage , polarization , Sino-Soviet rapprochement , strategic allies , Ukraine
May 23,2014 Topics of the Month

India’s New Leadership and East Asia – 1

India’s election has produced a decisive majority for the political alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Incoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi promises to reinvigorate an economy whose annual growth rates have halved from near double-digit rates in recent years. He has pledged to tackle endemic corruption and create a slimmed-down, more effective state through what he calls “maxim..

Daniel Twining
Asian commons , economic vitality , elections , India , Modi , regional security order , Southeast Asia , strategic reengagement
May 23,2014 Special Forum

Multilateralism in East Asia: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

In his masterpiece, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” Italian film director Sergio Leone constructed a surreal cinematic space through microscopic close-ups of his movie characters juxtaposed against the vast macroscopic landscape of the greater American West. These characters were not merely captured by the camera; they were monumentalized by it, a flirt with parody to boldly over-accentuate..

Jochen Prantl
East Asia , EU , formal-informal continuum , global-regional next , great power management , layered hierarchy of states , the state as market actor
May 16,2014 Open Forum

Washington Insights: May 2014 (Part 2)

This is the second of two parts of this issue’s Washington Insights. It provides a synopsis of a panel discussion on March 29 at the annual meetings in Philadelphia of the AAS. Although Rozman and Denisov were authors of papers, they were not on the panel. For a link to the video of the panel, please click here. Panel: South Korea’s Triangular Relations Authors: Sue-Mi Terry, US-ROK-Japa..

Editorial Staff
Alliance triangle , core regional triangle , North Korea diplomacy triangle , northern alliance triangle , Ukraine
May 09,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (May 2014)

President Barack Obama’s late April visits to Asian countries were assessed in Korean papers as an attempt to make the “pivot” to Asia more sophisticated with special emphasis on their implications for the Korean Peninsula. The increasing nuclear threats from the DPRK, the more complicated geopolitics in the Northeast Asian region in the wake of the Ukraine crisis and the impact of the crisi..

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)
China and Six-Party Talks , Sino-ROK mutual assistance on history issue , Ukraine crisis and North Korea , US-Japan alliance and the pivot
May 09,2014 Open Forum

Synopsis of the Asan Plenum: “Future of History,” April 22-23, 2014

  Asan Plenum 2014 Agenda: File Download Dark shadows hung over this year’s Asan Plenum. Wearing yellow ribbons and also observing moments of silence, the participants were in a somber mood owing to the sinking of the Sewol and the futile search for survivors still under way. The theme of the gathering did little to lighten the atmosphere. Despite brief references to more posit..

Gilbert Rozman
Cold War analogy , Foreign Minister Yun Byonse , hyper nationalism , mutual trust , return of history , Security dilemma