Mar 15,2021 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (March 2021)

Relations with the United States took center stage as South Koreans eyed the formation of the Biden administration, while phone conversations with President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the arrival of a new South Korean ambassador in Tokyo widened the scope of foreign policy concern. The focus of ROK-US relations shifted from […]

Sanghwa Hong
COVID-19 , GSOMIA , Quad , Special Measures Agreement , THAAD , wartime operational control
Mar 02,2021 Special Forum

China’s Strategies toward South Korea, Japan, and Australia in the Biden Era

As the Biden administration eyes ways to strengthen US alliances, China is weighing methods to drive a wedge between the US and its principal allies in the Indo-Pacific region—Japan, South Korea, and Australia. Its recent rhetoric toward them varies: harsh warnings toward Australia, a welcoming tone toward South Korea with underlying warnings, and the most […]

Gilbert Rozman
COVID-19 , free and open Indo-Pacific , Joe Biden , Moon Jae-in , Scott Morrison , Suga Yoshihide , trilateralism , US Alliance
Mar 02,2021 Country Reports

Country Report: China (February 2021)

In the winter of 2020–2021, Chinese analysts contemplated a world in flux, with the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to devastate the United States and the arrival of new leadership in both Japan (in September 2020) and the United States (in January 2021). They assessed how Sino–US competition will impact the future world order and explored how […]

Danielle F. S. Cohen (assisted by Dong Jiaxin)
"Belt and Road" Initiative , Cold War , COVID-19 , Joe Biden , Quad , US-China rivalry
Feb 15,2021 National Commentaries

Reviving the US –Japan alliance

The year 2021 is likely to be frustrating for the US-Japan alliance.1 The return of a process-oriented, alliance-centered decision-maker to the White House has relieved alliance managers and supporters in both Washington and Tokyo. The more pointless irritants in the bilateral relationship will be removed. Business as usual can resume as national security bureaucrats in […]

Brad Glosserman
COVID-19 , free and open Indo-Pacific , Joe Biden , National Security Strategy , Nuclear Posture Review , Suga Yoshihide , trilateralism
Feb 02,2021 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (January 2021)

Russian analysis at the end of 2020 and start of 2021 made clear Russia’s reality of becoming a junior partner to China, which was starting to eclipse the obsession with not being respected by the United States. On the one hand, two assumptions were widely acknowledged: that with Joe Biden in charge, Russo-US relations would […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)
COVID-19 , free and open Indo-Pacific , Greater Eurasia , Joe Biden , Kurile Islands , Quad , RCEP
Feb 02,2021 Open Forum

Biden’s Asia Policymakers

Despite credit given to Donald Trump for toughening US policy toward China and even trying a new approach to North Korea, his approach to the Indo-Pacific was roundly condemned for: poor choice of officials and little coordination; disruption of alliances with distrust of multilateralism; discordant messages with idiosyncratic goals; and little presidential presence or articulation […]

Editorial Staff
COVID-19 , free and open Indo-Pacific , Joe Biden , Quad Plus , Sharp power , US-ROK aliance
Feb 02,2021 Open Forum

The EU and China in 2021: Separate Discourses, Similar or Different Aims?

As the Biden administration seeks common ground across the Atlantic on China policy, it is timely to ask how similar or different are the objectives in the European Union and China in their relationship. An examination of the evolving discourse used to describe these ties serves as a starting point to grasp how differences have […]

Kerry Brown
Comprehensive strategic partnership , COVID-19 , EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment
Jan 11,2021 Open Forum

Perceptions and Misperceptions between China and South Korea amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

China and South Korea have each done a relatively good job in COVID-19 prevention and control. Active cooperation between the two governments in communications and medical materials improved bilateral relations. Opening a "fast track" for businessmen after the epidemic was brought under control shows that each recognized the effectiveness of the other’s efforts at preventing […]

Dong Xiangrong , Zhang Jiawei
anti-Communism , COVID-19 , Fang Fang , Mask diplomacy , THAAD , Wuhan