Feb 01,2017 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (January 2017)

The leadership vacuum created in December has raised questions about the legitimacy of both the domestic and foreign policies of the South Korean government. With opposing party candidates leading the poll for the 2017 presidential election likely to be advanced, they are calling for reversing controversial Park administration foreign policies like THAAD deployment, the 2015 […]

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)

Abe Shinzo , Balance of power , balancer , comfort women , Denuclearization , GSOMIA , isolationism , Kaesong Industrial Complex , Korea Air Defense Identification Zone , One China policy

Dec 29,2016 Alternative Scenarios

Positive Scenario I

Being chief diplomat is one of the many roles that the president plays under the Korean political system. The chief diplomat has been missing in Korea for months since a string of mysterious scandals have incapacitated Park from performing presidential roles. Many worry that her absence on the diplomatic stage, at a volatile time of […]

Kim Jaechun*

4th nuclear test , comfort women , GSOMIA , Hwang Kyo-ahn , impeachment , Park Geun-hye , ROK National Assembly , summit diplomacy , THAAD , Trump administration

Dec 29,2016 Alternative Scenarios

Negative Scenario I

On December 9, the South Korean National Assembly passed a motion of impeachment against Park Geun-hye. The ROK Constitutional Court has up to 180 days from that date to review the motion of impeachment and to evaluate the specific charges contained in the motion. While the court reviews the evidence in support of the impeachment […]

Scott Snyder

burden-sharing , comfort women , GSOMIA , Hanjin , Hwang Kyo-ahn , impeachment , Park Geun-hye , ROK National Assembly , Samsung , THAAD

Dec 28,2016 Review Article

NBR’s Strategic Asia Volumes at the End of an Era

Ashley J. Tellis, Abraham M. Denmark, and Greg Chaffin, eds., Strategic Asia 2014-15, US Alliances and Partnerships at the Center of Global Power (Seattle & Washington, DC: The National Bureau of Asian Research, 2014); Ashley J. Tellis with Alison Szalwinski and Michael Wills, eds., Foundations of National Power in the Asia-Pacific (Seattle & Washington, DC: […]

Gilbert Rozman

ASEAN , Australia , burden-sharing , comfort women , Duterte , GSOMIA , India , Indo-Pacific , Indonesia , Maritime Silk Road

Dec 20,2016 Open Forum

Synopsis of Washington, DC Meetings on Trump and the Korean Peninsula

A presidential transition in the United States understandably raises concern in allied countries heavily dependent for security and diplomacy. The transition from Obama to Trump is more unsettling than even the Carter to Reagan transition or the Clinton to Bush transition. Compounding the problem, the power transition and dangerous standoffs in East Asia keep US […]

Editorial Staff

Abe Shinzo , Al Qaeda , ASEAN , Balance of power , burden-sharing , comfort women , democratization , Denuclearization , Extended deterrence , GSOMIA

Dec 16,2016 Special Forum

What Trump Should Do about China

The monkey king raised his cudgel, and there was great disorder in Heaven. The jadelike firmament was cleared of dust With this phrase, Mao Zedong began China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. As nearly all Chinese would know, the phrase comes from a 16th century novel that has roots in folk beliefs dating from at least […]

June Teufel Dreyer

4th nuclear test , ASEAN , Asia pivot , Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank , burden-sharing , China Dream , cyberespionage , Dalai Lama , Diaoyu islands , freedom of navigation

Dec 16,2016 Special Forum

Running into a Long Brick Wall? Trump and the Future of US-China Relations

The surprise election of Donald Trump as the United States’ 45th president triggered alarm bells in capitals across the world including Beijing, given Trump’s haphazard foreign policy remarks throughout the campaign and his propensity to trust his gut judgment on a range of critical issues. Hence, just how Trump is going to move on key […]

Lee Chung Min*

APEC , Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank , Balance of power , burden-sharing , climate change , Duterte , FTAAP , Iran , ISIS , NATO

Dec 16,2016 Special Forum

Facing China: Policy Challenges for the Trump Administration in East Asia

As Donald J. Trump comes to power as the 45th president of the United States, he and his national security and foreign policy team will face significant challenges in dealing with a now-formidable and recently more assertive China. To a great extent, the problems they will encounter in dealing with China would confront any early […]

Jacques deLisle

Agreed Framework , Asia pivot , Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank , burden-sharing , Charm offensive , constitutional revisionism , cross-Strait relations , Denuclearization , East China Sea , FTAAP

Dec 16,2016 Special Forum

Japanese Media on the Impact of Donald Trump’s Election on Japan and China

Japanese awakened to Donald Trump’s victory in disbelief, coining the label “Trump shock” to go with other “shocks” memorable in their history with the United States.1 A failure had occurred: of the US media, of the US role as the beacon of democracy, and of both a model of capitalism2 that was supposed to forestall […]

Gilbert Rozman

Abe Shinzo , Abenomics , ASEAN , Asia pivot , Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank , Balance of power , burden-sharing , containment , cross-Strait relations , Duterte

Dec 13,2016 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (November)

Two themes dominated the news in November: the “shock” of the election of Donald Trump, which is covered separately in a Special Forum article, and the “anticipation” of Vladimir Putin’s visit to Japan on December 15. Already in the first part of the fall there was a sharp increase in Japanese articles on Japan-Russia relations, […]

Editorial Staff

AIIB , ASEAN , comfort women , East China Sea , energy , G20 , GSOMIA , Hikiwake , Kaesong Industrial Complex , Northern Territories