March 23,2017 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (March 2017)

In the first months of 2017, the cloud of impeachment hung heavily over South Korea’s foreign policy, while China’s anger at the THAAD deployment kept growing, and signs of the Trump administration taking a tough stance against North Korea’s increasingly serious threat capacity were growing too. Seoul’s relations with Tokyo were more troubled than before, and ties to M..

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)
Arms Race , ASEAN , comfort women , Eurasia Initiative , impeachment , India , Kaesong Industrial Complex , Kim Jong-nam , missile tests , NAPCI
February 28,2017 Open Forum

Washington Insights (Vol. 5, No. 1)

Rarely has there been such a tumultuous period in US foreign policy, reflected in DC discussions of it; many unknown figures were joining a new administration as lines of authority and influence were not only in flux, they were in chaos. Few in the think tank community spoke for the Trump team, but on Asia policy, there were also few who were not relieved as it pulled back on plans for a radi..

Editorial Staff
Abe Shinzo , Arms trade , ASEAN , Australia , Central Asia , comfort women , contingency , G8 , Georgia , India
February 24,2017 Open Forum

The Limitations of “Global Korea’s” Middle Power

2010 was a pivotal year for the Republic of Korea: as host of the G20 Leaders’ Summit—the first non-G7 and non-Western country to do so—the relatively small country earned international recognition as a significant force in the global arena. If the 1988 Seoul Olympics was South Korea’s debut on the international stage, then the Seoul G20 Summit was the equivalent—its opportu..

Balbina Y. Hwang
anti-globalization , BRICS , Cold War , G20 , G7 , impeachment , liberalism internationalism , middle power , Middle Power Diplomacy , MIKTA
February 22,2017 Country Reports

Country Report: China (February 2017)

In late 2016-early 2017, Chinese analysts examined state-level decision-making on the Korean Peninsula. In the first batch of articles written after the Hague tribunal’s decision, they explored China’s approach to ASEAN, interpreted Duterte’s new China policy, and assessed ASEAN maritime management. They also considered the origins and implications of Abe’s nationalism..

Danielle F. S. Cohen (assisted by Dong Jiaxin)
ASEAN , ASEAN Maritime Forum , ASEAN Regional Forum , ASEAN+3 , community of common destiny , Duterte , East Asia Summit , energy , G7 , Greater Mekong Subregion
February 22,2017 Alternative Scenarios

Negative Scenario II

Two months following the passage by the ROK National Assembly of a motion of impeachment against Park Geun-hye, power remains in the hands of Acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn, South Korean conservatives are split between the pro-Park New Liberty Korea Party and the newly-established anti-Park Bareun (Righteous) Party, and a series of investigations has expanded the dimensions of South Korea&rsq..

Scott Snyder
Abe Shinzo , anti-globalization , Ban Ki-moon , comfort women , Constitutional Court , Hwang Kyo-ahn , impeachment , missile tests , nationalism , Park Geun-hye
February 22,2017 Alternative Scenarios

Positive Scenario II

The Constitutional Court of South Korea has until June to rule for or against the impeachment decision made by the National Assembly last December. As a majority of citizens are clamoring for an early decision, the court is under pressure to deliver the verdict sooner than later. In fact, the ruling is likely to arrive as early as March 13, as the former chief justice of the Constitutional Co..

Kim Jaechun*
4th nuclear test , Abe Shinzo , Ban Ki-moon , burden-sharing , comfort women , Constitutional Court , Dokdo , elections , GSOMIA , impeachment
February 09,2017 Special Forum

Introduction

With a new US administration under Donald Trump tempted to use military power in ways still hard to predict, it is timely to review the major military challenges for the United States in the Indo-Pacific region. All draw attention to Sino-US relations, from the Korean Peninsula to the Indian Ocean, encompassing both the South China Sea and the East China Sea, where Taiwan is situated. In this..

Editorial Staff
A2/AD , Arms trade , Diaoyu islands , East China Sea , India , Korean reunification , military buildup , missile defense system , Nuclear deterrence , sanctions
February 09,2017 Special Forum

Shifting the Strategic Balance to Force North Korea to Change

This article proposes a new strategy to force a change in North Korea, a change that will result in a regime that does not develop nuclear weapons, does not threaten its neighbors, insures its citizens have the human rights as defined by the United Nations, and is on the road toward reunification with the ROK. I do not spend much time discussing what it has or is doing to increase its nuclear..

General (Ret.) Walter L. Sharp
forced labor , information campaign , intelligence sharing , Korean reunification , military buildup , missile defense system , missile tests , nuclear tests , provocations , ROK-US Alliance
February 02,2017 National Commentaries

A US Perspective

At the end of the first month of his presidency, how should we anticipate Trump’s post “pivot to Asia” policy toward East Asia? What matters: his personnel picks, his tweets and statements, meetings and calls with foreign leaders, or the intersection of US actions and those of countries in East Asia? Many US analysts are not wedded to all of the pivot, but this was seen larg..

Gilbert Rozman
Abe Shinzo , ASEAN , Australia , Denuclearization , East China Sea , freedom of navigation operations , GSOMIA , India , Kim Jong-nam , military buildup
February 01,2017 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (January 2017)

Three shocks left Japan’s media groping for answers at the end of 2016 and the start of 2017. The Trump shock kept playing out after the initial alarm and adjustment in November. This journal covered the first month’s response in detail, so this theme is not a focus here, even as the implications for Asia drew more dire warnings. The Putin shock drew mixed reactions in late Novemb..

Editorial Staff
abductions , Abe Shinzo , anti-globalization , ASEAN , Australia , comfort women , Crimea , Diaoyu islands , energy , GSOMIA