May 02,2017 Open Forum

Alliance Trilateralism at a Crossroads

South Korea is facing a nightmarish international environment, wholly unexpected as recently as 2015. Then the country was riding high in its foreign policy agenda: trustpolitik leading to a bonanza, “honeymoon” with Xi Jinping, best relations ever with the United States, a “comfort women” agreement with Japan, and, ahead, the Northeast Asian Peace and Cooperation […]

Editorial Staff

comfort women , Kaesong Industrial Complex , KORUS FTA , Moon Jae-in , Park Geun-hye , Sunshine Policy , THAAD , Trustpolitik

Mar 23,2017 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (March 2017)

In the first months of 2017, the cloud of impeachment hung heavily over South Korea’s foreign policy, while China’s anger at the THAAD deployment kept growing, and signs of the Trump administration taking a tough stance against North Korea’s increasingly serious threat capacity were growing too. Seoul’s relations with Tokyo were more troubled than before, […]

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)

Arms Race , ASEAN , comfort women , Eurasia Initiative , impeachment , India , Kaesong Industrial Complex , Kim Jong-nam , missile tests , NAPCI

Nov 01,2016 Special Forum

Introduction

Park Geun-hye’s sober foreign policy choices in 2016 pointedly contrast with her much-lauded ambitions of 2014-2015. In this set of articles we make the comparisons, suggest reasons for the changes, and explore implications of this transformation. We ask: Was this an awakening from illusions to harsh realities? Was it a shift from Plan A to […]

Editorial Staff

4th nuclear test , 5th nuclear test , bonanza , comfort women , Crimea , Eastern Economic Forum , Eurasian Economic Initiative , Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative , South China Sea , THAAD

Nov 01,2016 Special Forum

Growing Threats and Shifting Policies on the Korean Peninsula

President Park Geun-hye began her term in 2013 with high hopes, or at least plans for engaging North Korea to resolve the nuclear issue as well as appealing to China for assistance in reining in its recalcitrant ally. Instead, Park nears the end of her tenure having reversed herself after both policies failed to achieve […]

Bruce Klingner

3rd nuclear test , 4th nuclear test , Denuclearization , Dresden Declaration , Kaesong Industrial Complex , Korean unification , landmine crisis , Sunshine Policy , THAAD , Trustpolitik

Nov 01,2016 Special Forum

South Korea’s Realignment in 2016: Opportunities, Changes, and Challenges

Since its fourth nuclear test on January 6, 2015, North Korea has been showing off its nuclear capability to acquire the status of a nuclear state. Its parade of nuclear weapons-related tests, which South Korea calls strategic provocations, is casting a dark shadow over not only the Korean Peninsula but also Northeast Asia and the […]

Shin Beomchul*

4thnuclear test , 5th nuclear test , AIIB , Denuclearization , GSOMIA , human rights , Kaesong Industrial Complex , Middle Power Diplomacy , Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative , Park Geun-hye

Nov 01,2016 Special Forum

Synopsis of the Seoul Forum for International Affairs, September 23, 2016

In the early autumn of 2016, there were repeated seminars and exchanges in Seoul and Washington, DC on three interrelated topics: how to respond effectively to the North Korean threat, how to manage Sino-US relations with North Korea more than the South China Sea in the forefront, and how South Korea should reassert its drive […]

Editorial Staff

4th nuclear test , 5th nuclear test , ASEAN , East Asia Summit , Eurasia Economic Union , G2 , Maritime security , Maritime Silk Road , Nordpolitik , offshore balancing

Aug 29,2016 Special Forum

Chinese views of South Korean history

On August 3, Beijing ribao depicted THAAD as not aimed at defending against North Korea, but rather splitting China from South Korea.1 On August 7, Huanqiu shibao depicted the visit of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to Washington as Singapore joining in the US containment of China.2 China is rapidly adopting a polarized view of […]

Gilbert Rozman

China Dream , Cold War , communism , Koguryo , Korean War , Multipolarity , Northeast Project , regional order , Sinocentrism , Trustpolitik

Jun 10,2016 Review Article

Russian Authors on the Korean Peninsula and on Japan in Joint Publications

25-ia Godovshchina Ustanovleniia Diplomaticheskikh Otnoshenii mezhdu Respublikoi Koreia i Rossiei: rezul’taty i vyzovy (25th Anniversary of the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between the Republic of Korea and Russia: Results and Challenges) (Moscow: Aziatsko-Tikhookeanskii Issledovatel’skii Tsentr, Universitet Khan’ian, Institut Dal’nego Vostoka Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, 2015). Rossiisko-Iaponskie Otnosheniia v Formate Parallel’noi Istorii (Russian-Japanese Relations in the Format […]

Gilbert Rozman

NAPCI , Putin , Resolution 2270 , Russo-DPRK relations , Shinzo Abe , Suzuki-Muneo scandal , Trustpolitik

Dec 07,2015 Open Forum

South Korea’s Middle Power Multilateral Diplomacy:¹ Optimistic and Pessimistic Views

Throughout the second half of 2015, President Park Geun-hye has engaged in active summit diplomacy and tried to play the role of reconciler-in-chief. For instance, she took credit that her attendance at the September 3 military parade in Beijing brought the dividend Tokyo had sought through resumption of the China-Japan-Korea (CJK) summit. She also obtained […]

Lee Shin-wha*

MIKTA , NAPCI , National security , Regionalism , Trustpolitik

Jun 11,2015 Special Forum

Option 5: Rethinking Middle Power Diplomacy

Since the Cold War, South Korea has never been in a lonelier position as four great powers and North Korea have appeared to bypass it in their “pivots” to or within Asia. If North Korea has pivoted to anywhere it is to Moscow, while stonewalling Seoul. The two transformative summits of mid-spring 2015 saw Abe […]

Gilbert Rozman

Eurasian Initiative , hedging , MIKTA , NAPCI , Trustpolitik , US-Japan-ROK Trilateralism