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 09,2017 Special Forum

A Multipolar Nuclear Asia in the Trump Era

On December 22, 2016, President-elect Donald Trump used his electronic bully pulpit to opine on nuclear weapons policy. “The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses,” he tweeted, seemingly unprovoked by any global happening.1 He likely was reacting to a series of meetings with US Air Force and US Navy..

Christopher Clary
Arms Race , Cold War , Extended deterrence , first , India , military buildup , Multipolarity , mutually assured destruction , nuclear cascade , Nuclear deterrence
February 09,2017 Special Forum

Russia-China Defense Cooperation: New Developments

Sino-Russian defense cooperation has intensified significantly, especially after the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, making an update of what I wrote in this journal barely a year ago important in a wide-ranging assessment of how the military situation is evolving in East Asia. Coming after a prolonged period of relative decline in defense relations between the two countries starting around 2..

Paul Schwartz
Arms trade , Diaoyu islands , East China Sea , International Army Games , Joint Sea naval exercise , Lada-class submarines , MIRV , missile defense system , Peace Mission , Putin
February 01,2017 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (January 2017)

Russia appears to be on the precipice of some important change with less optimism than before but more candor about uncertainties. The December Putin-Abe summit left more questions than answers, less a sense of success or failure than of doubt on what comes next. The Putin-Xi summit of late November was perfunctory, coming amid continued talk of a relationship that could soar to another level..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)
Abe Shinzo , ASEAN , Central Asia , comfort women , EAS , energy , Eurasian Economic Union , G7 , Greater Eurasia , GSOMIA
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
December 28,2016 Alternative Scenarios

Negative Scenario II

The long-awaited December 15-16 Yamaguchi-Tokyo summit appears to have been a failure, which masqueraded as a step forward. That is the conclusion many sources in Japan have drawn, and the most reasonable finding unless one deduces from the remarks of Abe Shinzo and Vladimir Putin that in their 95-minute tete-a-tete with only interpreters present a confidential agenda was planned capable of produc..

Gilbert Rozman
1956 Joint Declaration , Abe Shinzo , Eastern Economic Forum , energy , G7 , Hikiwake , Kuril Islands , Northern Territories , Peace Treaty , Putin
December 28,2016 Alternative Scenarios

Positive Scenario II

Was President Putin’s visit on December 15-16 a success or a failure? Media coverage seems to have been almost unanimous in Japan and Russia. In Japan, a general sense of disappointment and many analytical articles concluded that the visit proved to be a failure for Prime Minister Abe. In Russia, conversely, a general sense prevailed that at least it was not a failure and possibly a victory for ..

Kazuhiko Togo
1855 treaty , 1956 Joint Declaration , Abe Shinzo , APEC , Kuril Islands , Northern Territories , Peace Treaty , Putin , Territorial Disputes , Trump administration
December 28,2016 Review Article

NBR’s Strategic Asia Volumes at the End of an Era

Ashley J. Tellis, Abraham M. Denmark, and Greg Chaffin, eds., Strategic Asia 2014-15, US Alliances and Partnerships at the Center of Global Power (Seattle & Washington, DC: The National Bureau of Asian Research, 2014); Ashley J. Tellis with Alison Szalwinski and Michael Wills, eds., Foundations of National Power in the Asia-Pacific (Seattle & Washington, DC: The National Bureau of Asian Re..

Gilbert Rozman
ASEAN , Australia , burden-sharing , comfort women , Duterte , GSOMIA , India , Indo-Pacific , Indonesia , Maritime Silk Road
December 20,2016 Open Forum

Synopsis of Washington, DC Meetings on Trump and the Korean Peninsula

A presidential transition in the United States understandably raises concern in allied countries heavily dependent for security and diplomacy. The transition from Obama to Trump is more unsettling than even the Carter to Reagan transition or the Clinton to Bush transition. Compounding the problem, the power transition and dangerous standoffs in East Asia keep US allies South Korea and Japan in a s..

Editorial Staff
Abe Shinzo , Al Qaeda , ASEAN , Balance of power , burden-sharing , comfort women , democratization , Denuclearization , Extended deterrence , GSOMIA