November 21,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (November 2014)

Russian articles on Russia’s “turn to the East” are full of confidence, concentrate on the big picture, and constantly repeat assumptions hardened over the previous half-year. Rather than reflect on Russia’s isolation, they insist that the West is isolated in the international community. Instead of identifying difficulties in the acceptance of Russia into East Asia, […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)
brics , india , international relations framework , russo-japanese relations , southeast asia , turn to the east
November 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
October 29,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: China (October 2014)

Ukraine (Russia), South Korea, India and, as usual, Japan attracted keen attention for their potential to alter the geopolitical environment in Asia. Ukraine’s significance is its impact on Russian relations with both the United States and China. In the case of South Korea its tensions with Japan and forward-looking diplomacy with China led to questions […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Dong Jiaxin*)
civilizations , hegemonism , india , look east policy , new cold war , new defense guidelines , ukraine , us-rok alliance
October 20,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (October 2014)

Hopes for Japanese diplomacy had grown faint in the late summer of 2014. Russian relations had stalled, as Russia flexed its muscles with rare military exercises on the islands in dispute. North Korea was delaying a report on the abductees, which Japan had been expecting in the middle of September. Possible meetings on the sidelines […]

Editorial Staff
asean asian dream , comfort women , eurasian diplomacy , japanese abductees , northern territories , putin’s visit , sanctions , thailand , ukraine , us pressure
September 29,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (September 2014)

While the world’s gaze centered on Russia’s relations with the West and the on-again, off-again confrontation over Ukraine, Russian publications paraded a new, more assertive outlook on Russia’s “turn to the East” (povorot na Vostok). Giving impetus to this was an early July meeting of ambassadors addressed by Vladimir Putin, the statements at which on […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)
brics , central asia , dead hikiwake , india , liberal secularism , new cold war , turn to the east , ukraine
September 12,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (September 2014)

President Park’s “principled diplomacy” has been criticized for a lack of detailed policies. Park set the two diplomatic goals of a “Northeast Asian Peace Process” and a “Korean Peninsula Trust Process.” The former has been practically blocked by Korea-Japan relations, and the later by the inter-Korean relationship. Seoul and Japan currently have only one official […]

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)
apologizing compensation" , may 24 restrictions , principled diplomacy , reunification charter , sex slaves , small routes to north korea , universal human rights and history
August 31,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: China (August 2014)

An article by Sun Ru in Zhongguo zhoubian distributed in its August 2014 posting took a close look at the US-Japan-South Korea triangle as it was strengthened by the three-way summit in March. It explained that the United States occupies the leading position in this triangle and has succeeded in temporarily getting the other two […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Dong Jiaxin*)
arms trade , ck fta , equilibrium , hegemonic thinking , india , public relations battle , six-party talks , southeast asia , values-based diplomacy , xi-park summit
August 11,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (August 2014)

On May 25, Yomiuri shimbun carried an article by Kitaoka Shinichi, who had chaired the advisory panel that had debated national security and defense capabilities. With the aim of identifying where the legal system for security relations was inadequate, his panel had found many barriers in the interpretation of the Constitution to acting in collective […]

Editorial Staff
collective self-defense , new type of great power relations , north korea card , peripheral diplomacy , propaganda war , ukraine , vietnam
July 25,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (July 2014)

New Russian articles suggest that South Korea’s foreign policy is more intriguing than previously anticipated. Explaining that there is talk today of forging a new system of global governance, an article in the June issue of Mezhdunarodnaia zhizn’ argues that the responsibility is rising for South Korea, with its important interests in the geopolitics and […]

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)
gas deal , global governance , new cold war , new silk road , sco , sino-russian alliance , soft integration , threat from the west , trustpolitik , ukraine
July 11,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (July 2014)

Northeast Asia’s geopolitical tensions have intensified and grown more complicated over the past two months. The Cold War-era legacy of contention between South Korea, the United States, and Japan on one side and China and North Korea on the other has become blurred. President Xi Jinping became the first Chinese leader to visit Seoul before […]

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)
balanced diplomacy , horizontal and vertical alliance , kono statement diplomatic record , park-xi summit , serving as a bridge , xi history speech