September 29,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (September 2014)

While the world’s gaze centered on Russia’s relations with the West and the on-again, off-again confrontation over Ukraine, Russian publications paraded a new, more assertive outlook on Russia’s “turn to the East” (povorot na Vostok). Giving impetus to this was an early July meeting of ambassadors addressed by Vladimir Putin, the statements at which on East and Central Asia were aired by..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)
BRICS , Central Asia , dead hikiwake , India , liberal secularism , New Cold War , turn to the East , Ukraine
September 29,2014 National Commentaries

A South Korean Perspective

"Reassessing the Park-Xi Summit"   In recent months, pundits in Washington and Tokyo talk or insinuate quite a bit about the so-called “Seoul-in-the-China-orbit” thesis. From this author’s perspective, however, much of it has been blown out of proportion. Granted that, during the last year or so, it was common to hear that South Korea-China relations have never been bett..

Chung Jae Ho*
EEZ , missile defense , national interests. strategic suspicion , overblown expectations , TPP , track 1.5 meeting
September 29,2014 National Commentaries

A US Perspective

"Reassessing the Park-Xi Summit"   The growing ties between China and the Republic of Korea are among the most consequential changes in East Asian politics, economics, and security of the past several decades. From modest beginnings in 1992 when Beijing formally accepted the reality of two Koreas rather than one, China and the ROK have built an increasingly diversified and inter..

Jonathan D. Pollack
comprehensive upgrading of relations , Economic Relations , FTA , hot in economy and warm in politics , major middle power , mutual respect , National security , trade dependency , US
September 12,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (September 2014)

President Park’s “principled diplomacy” has been criticized for a lack of detailed policies. Park set the two diplomatic goals of a “Northeast Asian Peace Process” and a “Korean Peninsula Trust Process.” The former has been practically blocked by Korea-Japan relations, and the later by the inter-Korean relationship. Seoul and Japan currently have only one official dialogue channel at..

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)
Apologizing compensation" , May 24 restrictions , principled diplomacy , reunification charter , sex slaves , small routes to North Korea , universal human rights and history
August 31,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: China (August 2014)

An article by Sun Ru in Zhongguo zhoubian distributed in its August 2014 posting took a close look at the US-Japan-South Korea triangle as it was strengthened by the three-way summit in March. It explained that the United States occupies the leading position in this triangle and has succeeded in temporarily getting the other two states to recommit to the triangular framework and support its rebala..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Dong Jiaxin*)
Arms trade , CK FTA , equilibrium , hegemonic thinking , India , public relations battle , Six-Party Talks , Southeast Asia , values-based diplomacy , Xi-Park Summit
August 12,2014 Topics of the Month

Multilateralism in Northeast Asia – 3

One of the main difficulties in my discussion of Russian foreign policy in Asia—indirectly alluded to in Elizabeth Wishnick’s comments—is a sense of uncertainty about Russia’s direction. While my analysis registers the undeniable closing of ranks between Beijing and Moscow, I fall short of proclaiming the death of multilateralism and highlight sources of tension between China and Russia th..

Sergey Radchenko
Alliance , colored revolutions , polarization , Vladimir Putin , Xi Jinping
August 11,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (August 2014)

On May 25, Yomiuri shimbun carried an article by Kitaoka Shinichi, who had chaired the advisory panel that had debated national security and defense capabilities. With the aim of identifying where the legal system for security relations was inadequate, his panel had found many barriers in the interpretation of the Constitution to acting in collective self-defense. Respecting the Constitution was a..

Editorial Staff
collective self-defense , New type of great power relations , North Korea card , peripheral diplomacy , propaganda war , Ukraine , Vietnam
July 25,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (July 2014)

New Russian articles suggest that South Korea’s foreign policy is more intriguing than previously anticipated. Explaining that there is talk today of forging a new system of global governance, an article in the June issue of Mezhdunarodnaia zhizn’ argues that the responsibility is rising for South Korea, with its important interests in the geopolitics and geoeconomics of the Korean Peninsula. ..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)
Gas deal , global governance , New Cold War , New Silk Road , SCO , Sino-Russian alliance , soft integration , threat from the West , Trustpolitik , Ukraine
July 11,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (July 2014)

Northeast Asia’s geopolitical tensions have intensified and grown more complicated over the past two months. The Cold War-era legacy of contention between South Korea, the United States, and Japan on one side and China and North Korea on the other has become blurred. President Xi Jinping became the first Chinese leader to visit Seoul before Pyongyang, and Japan lifted certain unilateral economic..

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)
Balanced diplomacy , horizontal and vertical alliance , Kono statement diplomatic record , Park-Xi Summit , serving as a bridge , Xi history speech