Oct 23,2018 Country Reports

Country Report: China (October 2018)

In mid-2018, Chinese experts assessed China’s relations with South Korea and Japan’s increasingly autonomous approach toward North Korea. They examined the fragmentation of security cooperation mechanisms in Southeast Asia, evaluated the factors underlying the deterioration in US–Russia relations, and analyzed the evolution of US and Japanese efforts to balance against China. China-South Korea Relations In […]

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

America First , ASEAN Way , Asian security concept , Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands , THAAD

Aug 31,2018 Special Forum

US-China Rivalry and the Future of the Korean Peninsula

The ongoing “trade war” between the United States and China is not just a trade dispute in light of the two sides’ intensifying rivalry in the area of strategic technologies. The rivalry has deepened as China has stepped up efforts to overtake western countries in advanced technologies, especially for semiconductors (the silicon brains required to […]

Kim Sung-han*

alliance transition , CVID , Panmunjom Declaration , Quad , THAAD , US-ROK alliance , value alliance

Aug 31,2018 Special Forum

The Current Crisis in Sino-US relations: How Deep Can It Be?

Sino-US relations appear to have entered a prolonged period of acute rivalry and growing hostility. The current crisis is the result of a long process of tensions building up. The showdown had been widely expected by both sides for quite a long time, in spite of numerous attempts to avoid or postpone it. For example, […]

Vasily Kashin

Air-Sea Battle , Made in China 2025 , South China Sea , THAAD , trade war , US-North Korea summit

Aug 21,2018 Country Reports

Country Report: China (April 2018)

China’s foreign relations are under extraordinary flux. Sino-US relations are viewed as more perilous than at any time since 1989 with some even going further back to 1979 or 1972. The often-troubled Sino-Japanese relationship has suddenly appeared to stabilize, as long-sought summits by Japan are presumed to be on track. The Sino-North Korean relationship abruptly […]

Gilbert Rozman

Act East Policy , BRI , Indo-Pacific strategy , inter-Korean summit , Quad , South China Sea , THAAD

Jun 30,2018 Special Forum

US-China Relations

The first handshake between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in front of a backdrop of the American and North Korean flags was surreal in many ways. Just a few months before the two leaders had been exchanging insults and threatening nuclear war, to then rush toward a summit that was cancelled […]

Patricia M. Kim

Singapore Statement , Six-Party Talks , THAAD , Trump-Kim summit , US-Japan alliance , Xi-Kim summit

Jun 20,2018 Country Reports

Country Report: China (June 2018)

In the spring of 2018, Chinese experts reacted to the Kim–Trump summit and evaluated the prospects for resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis, assessed South Korea’s role in East Asian politics, and evaluated Australia’s increasingly interventionist South China Sea policy. They also examined Trump’s China policy and analyzed how the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) […]

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

AIIB , BRI , Kim-Trump summit , South China Sea , THAAD , US-South Korea alliance

Jun 11,2018 Open Forum

An Exchange with Alexander Lukin on Russo-Chinese Relations: The New Rapprochement

Below is a dialogue consisting of questions asked by Gilbert Rozman after reading the new book and responses by Alexander Lukin clarifying the arguments of the book. First are some comments to set the stage, considering that Russian thinking about East Asia is important in the 2018 context of intense diplomacy over North Korea, rising […]

Gilbert Rozman , Alexander Lukin

BRI , democratism , EAEU , free and open Indo-Pacific , SCO , THAAD

Apr 24,2018 Special Forum

South Korea

Despite the announcement on October 31, 2017 to improve South Korea-Chinese bilateral relations,1 and the summit between presidents Moon Jae-in and Xi Jinping in December 2017, South Korea is still under China’s economic and trade retaliation over the THAAD issue. China has not been shy about using its economic tools to coerce South Korea in […]

Choi Kang*

BRI , Confucius Institutes , Qi Guohong , Sharp power , THAAD

Feb 27,2018 Special Forum

Introduction

As the diplomatic prospects for resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis took center stage while the military focus remained fixed on North Korea’s persistent advances and the “fire and fury” that President Trump threatened to unleash, it remained important in the first months of 2018 to keep the eyes of the international community on South […]

Editorial Staff

comfort women , KORUS FTA , Pyeongchang Olympics , THAAD , US-ROK alliance

Feb 27,2018 Special Forum

South Korean Public Opinion

The year 2017 brought unusual dynamism all around the world and particularly related to the Korean Peninsula. In the United States, an unprecedented type of president was inaugurated with scant appreciation of alliances and apparent lack of knowledge of the relations between the United States and South Korea, bringing an unfamiliar and wary air to […]

Kim Jiyoon*

Cheonan , KORUS FTA , Pyeongchang Olympics , THAAD , US-ROK alliance