Jul 17,2015 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (July 2015)

With the seventieth anniversary of the end of the war and the division of the Korean Peninsula coming up in August, diplomatic challenges continued, especially in South Korea’s relationships with North Korea and Japan. It was commonly noted that the upcoming anniversary is the best opportunity to make a breakthrough in the two stalled relationships. […]

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)
Middle Power Diplomacy , National security , OPCON , Regionalism , The China Paradox
Apr 30,2015 Open Forum

A Stronger Korea-Mongolia Link in a Changing Northeast Asia

As the constellation of relationships that has dominated Asia for decades begins to evolve towards a new dynamic, the vocabulary of change has begun to foreshadow a very different regional map, with some new trends holding the promise of stronger regional integration while others, perhaps, suggest increasing stresses and frictions. Of course, there is the […]

Mark Minton
AIIB , MCA , Mongolia , NAPCI , National security , Regionalism , Ulaanbaatar Initiative
Feb 16,2015 Open Forum

Beyond Geopolitics: South Korea’s Eurasia Initiative as a New Nordpolitik

Beyond Geopolitics: South Korea’s Eurasia Initiative as a New Nordpolitik 1 On October 18, 2013, at an international conference on Eurasian cooperation in Seoul, Park Geun-hye proposed the “Eurasia Initiative.” Under the watchwords of “one continent, creative continent, and peaceful continent,” the initiative projects a unified system of transport, energy, and trade networks across the […]

Kim Taehwan*
Eurasia Initiative , NAPCI , National security , Nordpolitik , pivot state , Regionalism , trust-building
Nov 10,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (November 2014)

South Korean newspapers have recently focused on parallels in international relations. As they follow developments in Ukraine and Hong Kong and keep their gaze on North Korea, they are alert to similarities that can influence the foreign policy of the Park administration. The most significant overlaps are found between Ukraine and South Korea. The former […]

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)
Agreed Framework , Civilizations , Hong Kong , Regionalism , reorganization of Asia , THAAD , Ukraine
Oct 17,2014 Special Forum

Japan’s Approach to Southeast Asia in the Context of Sino-Japanese Relations

At times, since 2000, interest has piqued in Sino-Japanese competition—over Russia (rival proposals for an oil pipeline in the early 2000s), South Korea (maneuvering within ASEAN+3 and in the Six-Party Talks), and India (recently, as Abe Shinzo and Xi Jinping both are seeking upgraded ties to Narendra Modi)—, but the most intense, sustained rivalry has […]

Gilbert Rozman
Asian values , Asianism , Australia , East Asian Community , Fukuda Doctrine , India , Rebalancing , Regionalism , Revisionism , South China Sea
Aug 11,2014 Open Forum

Southeast Asia’s Developing Divide

The Asan Forum’s introductory Topics of the Month article on the present state of Northeast Asian strategic competition and regionalism by Sergey Radchenko shares much in common with this article. The authors summarized in Multilateralism in Northeast Asia I contend that: 1) there are developing geostrategic divides in Northeast Asia just as the Cold War […]

Malcolm Cook
ASEAN rebalancing , developing divide , foreign direct investment , FTAs , maritime-continental divide , multilateralism , Regionalism , Southeast Asia
Jul 19,2013 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (July 2013)

Country Report: Japan (with the assistance of Iwaki Shigeyuki) After Prime Minister Abe’s visit in February to the United States, Japanese sources have flitted from one problem to another in the surrounding region, but with one abiding concern: Is there a way to overcome a feeling that their country is under siege? Writings continue to […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Iwaki Shigeyuki*)
Crisis of August 2012 , Japan-China Relations , Japan-South Korean Relations , Regionalism , Revisionism , Xi-Obama Summit , Xi-Park Summit