June 22,2015 Open Forum

Washington Insights (Vol. 3, No. 3)

In the shadow of the Abe and Park visits to Washington and Putin and Xi’s first joint observance of the seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II mixed with their joint celebration of the arrival of Eurasianism, there was much to ponder at DC seminars, conferences, and book launches in the late spring of 2015. Tensions over both North Korea and the South China Sea grew more acute, talk o..

Editorial Staff
ASEAN , Eurasianism , ROK-Japanese relations , trilateralism
June 12,2015 Alternative Scenarios

The Sino-Russian-North Korean Northern Triangle

There has been much recent talk about strengthening Sino-Russian relations, but few have considered the implications for their policies toward North Korea. In this exchange of views, we present the arguments for the revival of a triangle linking the three in opposition to the US-ROK-Japanese triangle, and we follow with arguments to the contrary. This leads us to reflect on the Cold War principles..

Editorial Staff
May 26,2015 Alternative Scenarios

US-China Military-to-Military Relations in 2015

With tensions growing over the South China Sea, an exchange about the state of mil-mil relations between China and the United States is timely. Are they improving, as some have argued over the past year or more, or are they actually worsening, as recent warnings and potential confrontations have indicated? In this two-part exchange, the pros and cons of arguments about the state of these relations..

Editorial Staff
May 03,2015 Review Article

‘Povorot k Azii: Rossiskaia Vneshnaia Politika na Rubezhe Vekov i ee Activizatsiia na Vostochnom Napravlenii’ [‘The Pivot to Asia: Russia’s Foreign Policy at the Turn of the Century and Russia’s Shift to the East’]

A.V. Lukin, Povorot k Azii: Rossiskaia Vneshnaia Politika na Rubezhe Vekov i ee Activizatsiia na Vostochnom Napravlenii [The Pivot to Asia: Russia’s Foreign Policy at the Turn of the Century and Russia’s Shift to the East] (Moscow, Ves’ mir, 2014). The 2014 compilation of essays by Alexander Lukin is a fascinating glimpse at the gradual shift of Russian foreign policy towards Asia, throug..

Gregory Shtraks
April 30,2015 Open Forum

Arms Racing in Strategic Technologies: Asia’s New Frontier

Richard Weitz1 Although China, Russia, and the United States have together experienced numerous crises and tensions since the end of the Cold War, one important reason that each state has refrained from employing military force directly against the others is their robust nuclear deterrents and survivable “second-strike” capabilities—their assured ability to retaliate effectively with thei..

Richard Weitz
April 30,2015 Open Forum

Washington Insights (Vol. 3, No. 2)

Different options have recently been aired before Washington think tanks for the regional architecture of Asia/the Asia-Pacific/the Indo-Pacific. Comparisons of four of these and the responses to some by the audience should be instructive. They are: 1) deferring to China centered on the South China Sea, promoting sinocentrism; 2) endorsing an invigorated EAS, capable of establishing the Asia-Pacif..

Editorial Staff
APC , EAS , mililateralism , NAPCI , pivot to Asia , Sinocentrism , sub-regional multilateralism , TPP
April 30,2015 Open Forum

The Strategic Alignment between Russia and China: Myths and Reality

Speculation about the possibility of China and Russia creating an official strategic alliance in response to American unipolar dominance is not new and can be traced back to the early 1990s. Recently, however, the American “pivot to Asia,” China’s new assertiveness in territorial disputes, Russia’s high-profile “turn to the East,” and the deterioration of Russia-America and, more broad..

Alexander Korolev
April 30,2015 Open Forum

A Stronger Korea-Mongolia Link in a Changing Northeast Asia

As the constellation of relationships that has dominated Asia for decades begins to evolve towards a new dynamic, the vocabulary of change has begun to foreshadow a very different regional map, with some new trends holding the promise of stronger regional integration while others, perhaps, suggest increasing stresses and frictions. Of course, there is the still-emerging US "pivot" to Asia, which s..

Mark Minton
AIIB , MCA , Mongolia , NAPCI , National security , Regionalism , Ulaanbaatar Initiative
February 16,2015 Open Forum

Beyond Geopolitics: South Korea’s Eurasia Initiative as a New Nordpolitik

Beyond Geopolitics: South Korea’s Eurasia Initiative as a New Nordpolitik 1 On October 18, 2013, at an international conference on Eurasian cooperation in Seoul, Park Geun-hye proposed the “Eurasia Initiative.” Under the watchwords of “one continent, creative continent, and peaceful continent,” the initiative projects a unified system of transport, energy, and trade networks across ..

Kim Taehwan*
Eurasia Initiative , NAPCI , National security , Nordpolitik , pivot state , Regionalism , trust-building
February 10,2015 Open Forum

Synopsis of Five-University Collaboration, Dec. 2014

Agenda: Five University Collaboration on East Asia Security Conflict & Cooperation File Download In mid-December, faculty and graduate students at five universities in five countries met again to exchange views on the state of security in East Asia. Prior conferences had produced thoughtful, constructive exchanges, but no reports were circulated on what they covered and how they served to st..

Editorial Staff
Obama-Xi Summit , Six-Party Talks , TPP , Trustpolitik