Aug 24,2016 Open Forum

Washington Insights

In the summer of 2016, Washington DC has been consumed with the Clinton-Trump race and the unprecedented revolt of the Republican national security establishment against their party’s presidential candidate. Three bilateral relations have been in flux against the background of increased uncertainty about Sino-US relations.  DC discussions have in particular focused on Sino-Russian relations, while […]

Editorial Staff

alliance building , Cold War , rebalance , sanctions , Sea of Okhotsk , Shanghai Cooperation Organization , Six-Party Talks , South China Sea , THAAD

Aug 12,2016 Alternative Scenarios

Negative Scenario II: India’s Balance of Interest in the Asian Century

By outlining the nuances propelling India’s diplomatic and military engagements in recent weeks, this article argues that each nation in the India-US-Japan trilateral design is guided by its own individual national interest and that India’s attitude toward geopolitical realities is shaped by a balance between engagement and autonomy. This piece, as the first one, analyzes […]

Titli Basu

BRICS , East China Sea , India-US-Japan , Nuclear Suppliers’ Group , RIMPAC , SCO , Shangri-La Dialogue , South China Sea , UNCLOS

Aug 12,2016 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (August 2016)

In late spring and early summer, the focus of the Japanese media shifted from the G7 and Obama’s visit to Hiroshima to the South China Sea ruling and China’s angry response, followed by intensified pressure on ASEAN. The overall impact was for Japan to strengthen relations with the United States (despite nervousness about Trump) and […]

Editorial Staff

comfort women , Donald Trump , EEU-ASEAN , G7 Summit , Hashimoto-Yeltsin plan , Senkaku Islands , South China Sea , Takeshima , THAAD

Aug 03,2016 Review Article

Review of Rising China’s Influence in Developing Asia by Evelyn Goh et al. (2016)

For some time China has felt itself alone among many neighbors, and its sudden leap to prominence since 2008 has heightened concern that it might use its increasing asymmetries of power to control its regional environment. While China sees its influence in Asia as a "win-win” interaction based on mutual respect, its actions in the […]

Brantly Womack

ASEAN , Asian Infrastructural Investment Bank , Development , Hydropower , Monetary policy , South China Sea , UN Human Rights Council

Aug 03,2016 Open Forum

Russia’s Korean Policy since 2012: New Hopes, Achievements, and Disappointments

This article focuses on Russia’s Korean policy since 2012. That year was very important: in North Korea, Kim Jong-un had just come to power at the end of 2011; in Russia, Vladimir Putin returned to the presidential office in May; and in South Korea, leadership changed in the aftermath of Park Geun-hye winning the December […]

Serghei Golunov

Gaeseong Park , Rajin-Khasan , Resolution 2270 , Six-Party Talks , South China Sea , THAAD , USSR

Aug 03,2016 National Commentaries

Implementing Sanctions against North Korea：A US Perspective

By all accounts, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2270 represents a significant and unexpected advance of the authority given to the UN and member states to pursue sanctions against the DPRK. Language referring to North Korean coal, iron ore, and jet fuel was unprecedented, and the demands for member state action were more insistent, […]

James Walsh

Resolution 2270 , South China Sea , THAAD , UN Panel of Experts

Jul 27,2016 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (July 2016)

Three international thunderbolts of late June and early July drew intense responses in the South Korean media. The decision to deploy THAAD in South Korea was recognized as destabilizing relations with China and Russia, affecting the diplomatic balance that Seoul had been striving to cultivate since the end of the Cold War. The international court […]

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)

Cold War , Russia-China-North Korea , South China Sea , THAAD , US-Japan-South Korea

Jul 27,2016 Alternative Scenarios

Positive Scenario II: Japan-US-India Security Cooperation Has Progressed “Dramatically”

The Japan-US-India cooperation has progressed dramatically over the last two months (June-July 2016). Three developments, in particular, have highlighted an advance in the trilateral security cooperation. First, defense ministers from all three countries at the 15th Asia Security Summit (Shangri-La Dialogue) emphasized the importance of trilateral security cooperation. Nakatani asserted, “With regard to its relationship […]

Nagao Satoru*

Asian Security Summit , Indian Ocean , Malabar maritime exercises , Shangri-La Dialogue , South China Sea , UNCLOS

Jun 30,2016 Special Forum

Is the EU on the Same Page as the United States on China?

“There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them.” Winston Churchill The European Union needs China, first and foremost, as an economic partner and, second, also for addressing international and regional crises. China uses its leverage and lobbies the European Union to stay out of the South China […]

Theresa Fallon

16 + 1 , AIIB , Arbitration Tribunal , Checkbook diplomacy , EU-China Investment Agreement , Market Economy Status , MTU Friedrichshafen GmbH , South China Sea

Jun 03,2016 Open Forum

Chinese Interpretations of Japan and Its Role in the Indo-Pacific Region in 2016

In April, Kishida Fumio made the first official visit by a Japanese foreign minister to China in more than four years. Sino–Japanese relations had deteriorated over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands dispute in the early 2010s and have yet to recover. They overcame one hurdle when Xi Jinping agreed to meet Abe Shinzo during Abe’s visit for […]

Danielle F. S. Cohen (assisted by Dong Jiaxin)

Article 9 , China threat theory , Expansionist history , India-Japan relations , Japanese Air Self-Defense Force , proactive pacifism , Quadrilateral initiative , South China Sea , UNCLOS