Feb 12,2016 National Commentaries

A South Korean Perspective

"US-ROK-Japanese Trilateral Security Cooperation"   Despite the practical necessity of trilateral security cooperation among the United States, the Republic of Korea (ROK), and Japan, conditioned by changes in the security environment in and around the Korean Peninsula, the Park administration has maintained a kind of lukewarm or cautious attitude toward it. Several factors have contributed […]

Choi Kang*

comfort women , Regional commons , Regionalism , unification

Feb 11,2016 National Commentaries

A Japanese Perspective

"US-ROK-Japanese Trilateral Security Cooperation"   In the mid-1990s, when Japan and the United States redefined their alliance and revised the “Guidelines for Defense Cooperation between the United States and Japan” to match the new set of international security challenges that arose after the end of the Cold War, trilateral security relations among the United States, […]

Yamaguchi Noboru*

Regionalism , Track 2 talks , US deterrence

Feb 11,2016 National Commentaries

A US Perspective

"US-ROK-Japanese Trilateral Security Cooperation"   When President Barack Obama announced his much-touted “rebalance” to Asia in a speech in Australia in November 2011, his administration believed that its new stance toward the Asia-Pacific policy would be his foreign policy legacy. Having ended, so they hoped, America’s military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, their emphasis on […]

Michael Auslin

Democracy , Hub-and-Spokes , National security , Regionalism

Jan 25,2016 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (January 2016)

The APEC and EAS Summits in November On November 24, Kyunghyang Shinmun carried an article by Shin Ju-baek, regretting that the successes in multilateral diplomacy were hardly noticed in light of the intense coverage of the terror attack in Paris and the US-China-Japan competition in the South China Sea. The author points out two achievements, […]

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)

December "Comfort Women" deal , Five-party cooperation , multilateralism , North Korea nuclear issue , Regionalism

Jan 25,2016 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (January 2016)

The message in Russian media of late 2015 was pessimism about economic ties to China, but reluctance to blame the Chinese. Little is said about Russia’s relations in East Asia apart from China. Debate continues on the “turn to the East,” some seeing it as ongoing and inevitable, and others calling it an economic failure […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)

Chinese diaspora , Geopolitics , National identity , Regionalism , Yellow Peril

Dec 23,2015 Special Forum

Introduction to the Special Forum

A lot has happened in Sino-Russian relations in 2014-2015, but some observers still are pondering whether this is a serious, alliance-like relationship with far-reaching impact on the Asia-Pacific region or something more ephemeral, subject to clashing regional interests that could turn the two against each other. Just two years ago a Special Forum assessed Sino-Russian […]

Editorial Staff

National security , North Korea , Regionalism , SCO

Dec 23,2015 Special Forum

Mongolia Hangs in the Balance: Political Choices and Economic Realities

Year 2015 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of Mongolia’s democratic revolution. Ever since it escaped the protective embrace of its northern neighbor, Mongolia maintained an astute foreign policy, pursuing positive dialogues with China and Russia and also reaching out to its so-called collective “third neighbor,” usually understood to be Western countries plus Japan. The election of […]

Sergey Radchenko

Economic Relations , Good Neighbor policy , Khalkin Gol Battle of 1939 , Neutrality , Regionalism , third neighbor policy

Dec 23,2015 Special Forum

Russia, China, and Central Asia: Time for Decision

When the Soviet Union disintegrated, one might have expected Central Asia to become a natural region of rivalry between Moscow, which could no longer exercise formal political control over the region, and Beijing, whose rising power was no longer contained by a sealed Soviet border reinforced by powerful armed forces. But China and Russia have […]

Richard Weitz

Arab Spring , EEU , Regionalism , Silk Road Economic Belt , Uighur militancy

Dec 18,2015 Alternative Scenarios

Negative Scenario for Modi’s India “Acts East” Take Two: What Should It Be?

Without getting into a quibble with Mr. Twinning’s analysis, parts of which I respectfully disagree with, allow me to use this opportunity to rather take a long view from New Delhi about what India’s foreign policy should be over the next decade. What are the levers that can enable and constraints that can hobble government […]

Manish Tewari

Indian exceptionalism , Indo-Japan relations , National security , Neighborhood diplomacy , Regionalism

Dec 18,2015 Country Reports

Country Report: China (December 2015)

No indications were found in Chinese publications of realist thinking about how to resolve security challenges such as the threatening North Korean military build-up or the increasingly confrontational atmosphere in the South China Sea. Explanations were missing for why China has resumed high-level meetings with Japan despite its continued demonization of that country and its […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Dong Jiaxin*)

Asian values , CJK summit , East Asian Community , Economic Relations , One Belt, One Road , One Road" , Regionalism