November 22,2013 Review Article

New South Korean Academic Writings on Contemporary Japan and Japanese-Korean Relations

South Korean academic writings of 2013 provide a useful window through which students of Japan worldwide can observe Japan and Japanese-Korean relations. So far this year, I found that six books have been published on Japan and Japanese-Korean relations, as well as six articles in the two most prestigious journals of political science (The Korean Journal of International Relations and Korean Polit..

Kim Jiyoung*
Abe Shinzo , comfort women , lack of common goals , military power , threat perceptions
November 22,2013 Special Forum

Russia’s China Challenge in a Changing Asia: An American Perspective

Russia’s relations with China have steadily improved for about twenty years after a brief, strong, pro-Western tilt in Russian foreign policy right after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992.1 The weakening political position of the Gaidar government by late 1992 and the defeat of pro-Western liberal parties Russia’s Choice and Yabloko in the 1993 parliamentary elections were correlated wi..

Andrew Kuchins
Axis of necessity , complementarity , distrust , natural gas politics , oil politics , Russia’s pivot to Asia , Russian diversification in Asia , swing state
November 22,2013 Special Forum

Sino-Russian Strategic Partnership Cooperative Relations and the US Factor

After the Soviet Union collapsed at the end of 1991, Sino-Soviet relations became Sino-Russian relations. For more than twenty years, these relation ns have developed extremely smoothly, and the leaders of both countries consider today’s relations to be better than they have ever been historically. Many factors have propelled these relations forward, but the most important are internal factors i..

Li Jingjie*
long-term overlapping interests , mutual economic need , new type of bilateral relationship , Smoothly developing relations , triangularity , US rebalancing
November 22,2013 National Commentaries

Southeast Asian Perspective

"China and International Law/Norms: Southeast Asian Perspective" Peaceful Development towards a Sinocentric Asia? China’s rise has resulted in a fundamental shift of the strategic balance in the world. While the United States and its alliance system remain dominant in security arrangements, China has become the center of economic gravity. In the wake of the US “rebalancing” p..

Huang Jing*
Anti-unilateralism , ASEAN , BRICS , code of conduct , East China Sea , new type of relations , Peaceful Development , Rebalancing , Sinocentric , South China Sea
November 08,2013 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (November 2013)

Japan and the ROK-US-Japan triangle preoccupied the Korean media through the early autumn. Criticism of the Abe administration only intensified, but it came amid growing concern about whether further deterioration in ROK-Japan relations was advisable and, even more, how to respond to increasing military ties between Japan and the United States. There was no sign that Korean criticisms were alterin..

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)
collective defense , forced labor , missile defense , sex slaves , TPP , Trustpolitik , US triangularity , Yasukuni Shrine
November 06,2013 Topics of the Month

The ROK-US Alliance – 5

The US-ROK Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement: Overcoming the Impasse The United States and Republic of Korea have enjoyed a strong partnership for over 60 years, which has contributed to peace, security, and prosperity in the southern half of the peninsula. It is an impressive success story of which Koreans and Americans can be proud. A significant part of that success is cooperation in the c..

Robert J. Einhorn
123 Civil Nuclear Agreement , enrichment , non-proliferation , Nuclear Technology Transfer Agreement , reprocessing
October 18,2013 Topics of the Month

The ROK-US Alliance – 4

Progress amidst Problems: Readout of This Month’s ROK-US Annual Security Meeting Thanks to Secretary Chuck Hagel’s important visit to South Korea last week, the ROK-US alliance is on firmer footing, at least in the near-term. Hagel and other senior US defense officials spent an unprecedented four days in South Korea, attending ceremonies commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the mutual ..

Richard Weitz
Ballistic missile defense , Chuck Hagel , extended deferrence , Kim Kwan-jin , OPCON transfer , preemption , Special Measure Agreement
October 07,2013 Open Forum

Introduction to the Open Forum

In this issue of the Open Forum we present the case for China from three points of view. Ren Xiao elaborates on what China’s leaders mean by the “new type of great power relations,” presenting them in the most favorable light. William Overholt’s presentation centers on a dichotomy between economic development priorities and geopolitical ones, noting some loss of the former in China but put..

Editorial Staff
China’s rise , dichotomy of economics and security , economics vs. geopolitics , historical legacy , idealism scrutinized , militarism , New type of great power relations , US as troublemaker , US mindset