August 16,2017 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (July 2017)

President Moon made his international debut at the summit with President Trump in Washington and at meetings with the G20 leaders in Germany. His debut was generally considered successful. On the surface, the first meeting between Moon and Trump appeared to be a meaningful one, reaffirming the solidarity of the alliance between South Korea and the United States. However, it also demonstrated ..

Editorial Staff
comfort women , G20 , KORUS FTA , Moon Jae-in , THAAD , Trump-Moon summit
July 29,2017 Special Forum

Introduction

Over the summer of 2017, all eyes have been on the Northern Tier of Asia: North Korean relations with the United States, Sino-US relations and the Korean Peninsula, US-ROK relations, and Japan as a factor in these cases with Russia occasionally entering the picture. The Trump effect further south in Asia has drawn much less attention. In this collection of four articles, we cross Asia’s..

Editorial Staff
BOR , BRI , Donald Trump , freedom of navigation , Malabar naval exercise , South China Sea , TPP
July 29,2017 Special Forum

Australia

Australia is perhaps the ideal incubator for ideas, invectives, and occasionally, idiocies regarding a foreign policy challenge facing many if not most states today—how to navigate the disruptive transition occasioned by America’s decline and China’s rise. Relatively secure in its geographic isolation, with insufficient material capabilities either to look after itself or tip th..

Darren J. Lim
1951 ANZUS Treaty , Donald Trump , FONOPs , Malcolm Turnbull , OBOR , Shangri-La Dialogue , TPP-11
July 29,2017 Special Forum

ASEAN

For Southeast Asia, the halcyon days of the Obama “pivot,” which saw the president initiate the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, accede to ASEAN’s Treaty of Amity and Cooperation on the way to joining the East Asia Summit, and visit almost all Southeast Asian countries (the only exception was Brunei, which he would have visited in October 2013 if not for the governm..

Liow Joseph Chinyong*
APEC summit , BRI , Donald Trump , FONOPs , South China Sea , TPP , UNCLOS , US-ASEAN Summit
July 29,2017 Special Forum

India

Donald Trump’s ascension to the Oval Office has not buffeted US-India ties to the same extent as it has American relations with other key powers. In part, this is because Trump was elected on a wave of sentiments not dissimilar to those that powered Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s victory in India’s 2014 elections: an anti-establishment impulse among voters who wanted decisiv..

Daniel Twining
Act East Policy , BRI , CPEC , Donald Trump , Look East , Malabar naval exercises , Narendra Modi , TPP
July 29,2017 Special Forum

Japan in Asia’s Southern Tier

One of the notable features of Japanese foreign policy since Prime Minister Abe Shinzo returned to power in December 2012 has been its robust engagement with the countries in the Asia-Pacific region. In particular, Japan under Abe has been actively seeking to strengthen its relationship with the countries in Southeast Asia, Australia. and India. Japan’s National Security Strategy, relea..

Tatsumi Yuki*
Abe Shinzo , ADB , AIIB , BRI , Donald Trump , Fukuda Doctrine , ODA , TPP , trilateralism
July 03,2017 Open Forum

Japan’s Feelings of Marginalization in Spring 2017 and the US Factor

At this time of extraordinary flux, for some, Japan looms as an embodiment of stability and sound realist judgment. For others, it remains mired in the post-Cold War trap: stagnation without serious reform, revisionist obsessions without moves toward genuine reconciliation, and insularity without timely internationalization. In this article, I avoid these extremes to concentrate on the short-..

Gilbert Rozman
Abe-Trump summit , BRI , Moon-Trump summit , TPP , Trump-Xi Summit , US-Japan alliance
July 03,2017 Open Forum

Washington Insights (Vol. 5, No. 3)

In May and June, challenges mounted for observers of foreign relations in the Asia-Pacific region. Donald Trump kept throwing US policy into question. Clashing views of the Belt and Road forum left some anticipating Chinese leadership in regionalism and globalism, while others saw the forum as making little concrete progress. If the options for Japan and Russia appeared to narrow, each remain..

Editorial Staff
BRI , Donald Trump , G2 , TPP , US-Japan alliance , US-ROK alliance
June 29,2017 Special Forum

Introduction

Amid increasing uncertainties in Sino-US relations and Japan-South Korea relations, the late spring of 2017 prioritized US-ROK relations. After Moon Jae-in was elected as president, Seoul-watchers followed closely his policy and personnel decisions. In particular, they focused on their implications for US-ROK relations, as Moon awaits his first summit with Donald Trump, whose policies toward ..

Editorial Staff
comfort women , Donald Trump , FTA , Moon Jae-in , Moon-Trump summit , Sunshine Policy , THAAD , Xi Jinping
June 29,2017 Special Forum

Moon Jae-in’s Foreign Policy & Roh Moo-hyun’s Shadow

40 days into his presidency, Moon Jae-in appointed the nation’s first female foreign minister. However, fine-tuning for policy coherence and clarity on some key foreign policy items among his advisors has yet to happen. The main discord is not about national interests, but more ideological and philosophical, regarding South Korea’s position in the ROK-US alliance matrix and also th..

Lee Seong-hyon
FTA , Moon Jae-in , OPCON , Sunshine Policy , THAAD