November 06,2013 Topics of the Month

The ROK-US Alliance – 5

The US-ROK Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement: Overcoming the Impasse The United States and Republic of Korea have enjoyed a strong partnership for over 60 years, which has contributed to peace, security, and prosperity in the southern half of the peninsula. It is an impressive success story of which Koreans and Americans can be proud. A significant part of that success is cooperation in the c..

Robert J. Einhorn
123 Civil Nuclear Agreement , enrichment , non-proliferation , Nuclear Technology Transfer Agreement , reprocessing
October 18,2013 Topics of the Month

The ROK-US Alliance – 4

Progress amidst Problems: Readout of This Month’s ROK-US Annual Security Meeting Thanks to Secretary Chuck Hagel’s important visit to South Korea last week, the ROK-US alliance is on firmer footing, at least in the near-term. Hagel and other senior US defense officials spent an unprecedented four days in South Korea, attending ceremonies commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the mutual ..

Richard Weitz
Ballistic missile defense , Chuck Hagel , extended deferrence , Kim Kwan-jin , OPCON transfer , preemption , Special Measure Agreement
October 18,2013 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (October 2013)

As opponents of “collective defense” at home and abroad warned that Japan would start on the same path that led it to war in the twentieth century, Kitaoka Shinichi gave a strong rebuttal in Yomiuri shimbun on September 22, noting differences in the postwar era and insisting that Japan is a peace state (heiwa kokka) now subjected to threats. He contrasted today’s Japan with China on five dim..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Iwaki Shigeyuki*)
Ahn Jung-geun , Chinese “new thinking” , debate over China , Park Geun-hye , Sino-Japan comparisons , South Korea=China
October 07,2013 Open Forum

Introduction to the Open Forum

In this issue of the Open Forum we present the case for China from three points of view. Ren Xiao elaborates on what China’s leaders mean by the “new type of great power relations,” presenting them in the most favorable light. William Overholt’s presentation centers on a dichotomy between economic development priorities and geopolitical ones, noting some loss of the former in China but put..

Editorial Staff
China’s rise , dichotomy of economics and security , economics vs. geopolitics , historical legacy , idealism scrutinized , militarism , New type of great power relations , US as troublemaker , US mindset
October 07,2013 Open Forum

“Warring States”—The Coming New World (Dis)order

The Korean Peninsula is the last citadel of a bygone era. Since the end of the Cold War, the United States as the reigning superpower has been the anchor of a global architecture built after World War II and solidified during the post-Cold War period. It is organized around a narrative of dichotomy that has dominated international relations for more than half a century. It is a single fault line n..

Eric Li
cultural pragmatism , global architecture , historical determinism , ideology , status quo power
October 07,2013 Topics of the Month

The ROK-US Alliance – 3

Defining Future Goals of the ROK-US Alliance During the Cold War era, South Korea anchored its security policy mainly to deterrence against the North Korean threat. The main functions of the ROK-US alliance were limited to the Korean Peninsula, leaving the regional role of the alliance rather underdeveloped. However, with the rapid emergence of South Korea as an economic middle power successfully..

Chun Chaesung*
Alliance functions , regional security architecture , Reunification , Sino-US Relations
October 07,2013 Special Forum

Introduction to Special Forum on Strategic Thinking about North Korea

North Korea has been discussed widely, especially since Kim Jong-un took the reins after Kim Jong-il’s death. Yet, not often is it considered to be a subject of comparative strategic thought. The preoccupation with North Korean thinking, as hard as that may be to discern, and US thinking often leaves insufficient room for attention to the views of the other states that were part of the Six-P..

Editorial Staff
Denuclearization , infographics , Putin’s pivot , regional balance of power , Reunification , Sino-US cooperation , Sinocentrism , testing US alliances , triangles
October 07,2013 Special Forum

Chinese Strategic Thinking Regarding North Korea

In 2013, China is faced with the challenge of weighing the alternative goals of a favorable balance of power in Northeast Asia, a process of reunification on the Korean Peninsula that pays suitable attention to China’s national interests, and denuclearization. Of these, the oldest concern is the region’s balance of power, which is best seen through a brief overview of how it had changed since ..

Cheng Xiaohe*
Balance of power , historical lessons , reunification conditions
October 07,2013 Special Forum

South Korea’s Strategic Thinking on North Korea and Beyond

For more than six decades, South Korea has coped with one of the most enduring geopolitical asymmetries in the world, namely, the South-North conundrum on the Korean Peninsula. Virtually every aspect of Seoul’s policies and strategies towards Pyongyang is governed by this fundamental quandary that has resulted oftentimes in contrasting and even conflicting approaches and attendant policy objecti..

Lee Chung Min*
hybrid security template , need for security guidance , North Korea , North Korea challenges , opinion surveys , polarized worldviews
October 07,2013 Special Forum

North Korea in Japan’s Strategic Thinking

Through the repeated cycles of North Korean missile and nuclear testing, negotiations, and sanctions that have characterized international reaction to Pyongyang’s proliferation, Japan has gradually lost ground it its effort to shape events on the Korean Peninsula. Tokyo made some progress in direct negotiations with Kim Jong-il, most notably the visits to Pyongyang by Prime Minister Koizumi Jun..

Sheila A. Smith
Alliance challenges , Japanese Abductees , military strategy , missile threat