Dec 03,2015 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (December 2015)

The September 28 Yomiuri Shimbun argued that anti-Americanism is the crux of the opposition to the new law on collective self-defense. Reviewing a book by Miura Ruri (juxtaposing it to Hosoya Yuichi’s writing on internationalism), it credits Abe with the achievement of overcoming grassroots anti-American thinking both in leftist pacifism and in rightist anti-globalism. Deep-rooted […]

Editorial Staff
Internationalism , Japan-US alliance , National security , ROK-Sino Relations
Nov 23,2015 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (November 2015)

The first half of the fall was a trying period for South Korean diplomacy, which the conservative and progressive media viewed differently. There was a persistent sense of US pressure on the Park administration: against leaning toward China in support of reunification, for reassuring Washington that she is not leaning toward China, for accepting Japan’s […]

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)
National security , Park-Obama Summit , Regionalism , Reunification diplomacy , ROK-Sino Relations , ROK-US relations
Sep 23,2015 Open Forum

Washington Insights (Vol. 3, No. 5)

Four events drove discussions in DC in the normally quiet weeks of late summer. First, there was the Abe statement and the implications of historical memories for bilateral relations and US regional policy. Second, there was North Korea’s threat of war followed by direct talks with South Korea with uncertain implications. Third, Xi Jinping’s seventieth […]

Editorial Staff
History Wars , Japan-US relations , Nationalism Security , Obama-Abe summit , Regionalism , ROK-Sino Relations
Jun 11,2015 Special Forum

Introduction: Decomposing and Assessing South Korea’s Hedging Options

Increasingly scholars have opined that South Korea’s response vis-à-vis a rebalancing United States and a resurgent China—like that of other Asian states (except Japan and the Philippines)—is neither pure-balancing nor pure-bandwagoning, but a less straightforward approach commonly termed “hedging.”1 That is, rather than completely siding with one power against the other, Seoul has opted to […]

Kuik Cheng-Chwee*
hedging , ROK-Sino Relations