June 17,2019 Open Forum

Washington Insights, Vol. 7, No. 3

Trade overshadows security with human rights and democratization left on the sidelines in DC gatherings in the spring of 2019. The Hanoi summit left US-North Korean ties in limbo, reducing their salience in discussions as few new details emerged and the next steps remained difficult to fathom. In the Trump-Abe summits (two in the spring with as many as three more possible before the end of ..

Editorial Staff
"Belt and Road" Initiative , 5G , free and open Indo-Pacific , G20 , Hanoi summit , Huawei , THAAD , trilateralism , US-Japan alliance
June 17,2019 Open Forum

Domestic politics of China’s Belt and Road Initiative

China has an authoritarian political system and state-controlled capitalism. It is natural for foreign observers to predominantly view the autocrat-launched Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as a cohesive geostrategy to project Chinese power abroad. Such a view, however, is premised on misunderstanding China’s domestic politics and overlooks deep fragmentation among policymakers in China..

Min Ye
"Belt and Road" Initiative , Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank , Pakistan Economic Corridor , Shanghai Cooperation Organization , Silk Road Economic Belt , Silk Road Fund
June 04,2019 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (May 2019)

Since the diplomatic collapse in Hanoi, talks between the US and North Korea have remained at an impasse throughout April and May, while President Moon Jae-in kept seeking ways to play his role as a middleman and bring the two sides back to the negotiating table. One such attempt was another meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington, which conservatives in Seoul harshly criticized as ..

Kim Kimberly
Hanoi summit , Kaesong Industrial Complex , maximum pressure , Mount Geumgang , Six-Party Talks
May 28,2019 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (June 2019)

In the first half of spring 2019, in the face of a difficult environment for diplomacy with North Korea, Sino-US relations, and ROK-Japanese relations, Abe Shinzo continued to show initiative. He was defying the odds in continuing his pursuit of Vladimir Putin and trying to join the fray in pursuit of a summit with Kim Jong-un, while preparing for a busy month in hosting first Donald Tr..

Editorial Staff
"Belt and Road" Initiative , free and open Indo-Pacific , G20 , Northern Territories , Putin-Kim summit , Reiwa
May 27,2019 Country Reports

Country Report: Russia (May 2019)

In Rossiya v Global’noi Politike Sergei Karaganov continued his charges against the mindset of the majority of international affairs writers in the West and even Russia for their dangerous idea that the world is unpredictable, and influencing it is impossible. In his view the big players can shape it, and the elements of unpredictability are less than in many other epochs because the i..

Editorial Staff (with the assistance of Olga Puzanova)
"Belt and Road" Initiative , Beijing Consensus , BRICS , Pax Sinica , SCO , turn to the East
May 15,2019 Open Forum

Washington Insights, Vol. 7, No. 2

Exchanges in DC are increasingly torn between a focus on bilateral relations—in particular, US relations with China, North Korea, South Korea, and Japan—or on trilateral relations. If the Sino-US relationship has enough heft to galvanize bilateral attention, the other pairings keep becoming enmeshed in triangular analysis. This report on recent seminars and presentations in DC concentrate..

Editorial Staff
comfort women , Hanoi summit , Singapore Summit , trilateralism , US-Japan alliance , US-ROK alliance
May 14,2019 Special Forum

Introduction

The subject of interests versus values figures importantly in queries on international relations in Northeast Asia. Four prime examples are: 1) What is driving the tensions in Sino-US relations, and how should the US respond to China’s perceived ideological challenge? 2) Is Abe Shinzo driven by national interests or national identity in foreign policy, and how is today’s deteriora..

Editorial Staff
Abe Shinzo , Donald Trump , Kim Jong-un , Moon Jae-in , Vladmir Putin , Xi Jinping
May 14,2019 Special Forum

Winning the ideological competition with China

The 2017 US National Security Strategy describes a vision of the international arena defined by a return of great power competition, with China as the leading rival of the United States seeking to challenge the liberal international order.1  As Robert Kagan recently argued, authoritarianism has reemerged as “a profound ideological, as well as strategic, challenge.”2  Ideology, ..

Scott W. Harold
"Belt and Road" Initiative , America First , China Dream , Confucius Institutes , Donald Trump , free and open Indo-Pacific , Liberal international order , United Front , Xi Jinping
May 10,2019 Special Forum

The Case of Japan under Abe Shinzo

Consider the paradox of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, who presented himself as the Japanese leader most committed to pursuing value-laden issues, becoming touted by 2019 as the one world leader in the caldron of Northeast Asia eschewing such issues for pragmatic pursuit of the national interest. Whether dealing with the leader of the United States, China, or Russia, Abe has established himself a..

Gilbert Rozman
"Belt and Road" Initiative , comfort women , free and open Indo-Pacific , Northern Territories , Yasukuni Shrine
May 10,2019 Special Forum

Korea’s Choice: Synopsis of the Asan Plenum 2019

The theme of this year’s Asan Plenum was Korea’s Choice, and the core question regarded a choice between reaffirmation of the ROK-US alliance and prioritization of reunification with the long-separated northern part of the peninsula. For the first time in seven decades this choice had become a serious factor in Seoul’s diplomatic thinking. In many panels, both Koreans and Am..

Editorial Staff
Donald Trump , Global Korea , inter-Korean summit , Kim Jong-un , Moon Jae-in , US-ROK alliance