Asia Pacific
The Rising Tide of Japan-South Korea Relations
Christopher Johnstone, Victor Cha Fri, May 12, 2023, 8:16 AM
The Japanese prime minister’s recent visit to Seoul signals a long-awaited sea change.
Latest in South Korea
Healthy Elections Project
How South Korea Conducted Its Elections During the Pandemic: A Comparative Case Study
Miye D'Oench, Axel Hufford Fri, Aug 7, 2020, 8:01 AM
As a result of precautionary measures, South Korea was able to minimize voters’ risk of exposure to the coronavirus while maintaining the integrity of its election.
Coronavirus
Lessons for America: How South Korean Authorities Used Law to Fight the Coronavirus
Brian Kim Mon, Mar 16, 2020, 2:39 PM
South Korean lawmakers have built a bespoke legal regime with highly specific instruments for fighting infectious disease. Is the United States similarly equipped?
Asia Pacific
Korea and Japan Clash Over History and Law
Brian Kim Fri, Aug 16, 2019, 8:00 AM
South Korea and Japan, two of America’s closest allies, are tumbling into a dangerous economic-diplomatic war over a South Korean Supreme Court decision that ordered Japanese corporations to compensate Korean forced-labor victims from World War II. At the heart of the dispute is a legal disagreement over a 1965 treaty that triggers centuries of bad blood and spiritual animosity between the two countries.
Asia Pacific
Hard Olympic Security Choices: What to Watch for in Pyeongchang
Shannon Togawa Mercer Fri, Feb 9, 2018, 1:46 PM
The Olympic games are more than just sport.
The 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea have begun. For two weeks, athletes from around the world will careen down mountains and glide on mirror-perfect ice. But as always, global politics–and the military and security threats behind those politics–lie just beneath the sporting surface.
North Korea
Taking China Seriously on a North Korea Deal
Robert D. Williams Sun, Aug 20, 2017, 4:32 PM
With biannual joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises set to begin on Monday, the temperature on the Korean Peninsula has cooled, if only slightly, following a recent escalation in rhetoric between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Asia Pacific
The Tillerson Trip and the Hard Line Options
Stephan Haggard Tue, Mar 21, 2017, 9:30 AM
Secretary of State Tillerson is proving to be a man of few words. The result is that there is less to parse, but what is on record is more pointed than the lengthy disquisitions of his predecessor. Six components of his Asia trip require careful reading: his assurances to allies; “20 years of failure”; sanctions; military options; negotiations; and the all-important China audience of one, Xi Jinping.
The Assurance Piece
Water Wars
Water Wars: A Mixed Week for Alliance Management
Chris Mirasola Fri, Feb 3, 2017, 8:35 AM
Washington Re-Engages Asian Allies
Water Wars
Water Wars: Sparks (and Planes) Fly as Countries Contest Access to the Seas
Chris Mirasola Fri, Jan 13, 2017, 8:00 AM
China deploys carrier group and warplanes
Readings
Strategic Effects of Proliferating Military UAVs in the Asia Pacific Region
Kenneth Anderson Fri, Jun 24, 2016, 2:44 PM
Although drone warfare to date has overwhelmingly been analyzed in the context of US operations against non-state actors - Al Qaeda or affiliated groups or, more recently, ISIS - much of the impact of drones on warfare is likely to come in the markedly different environment of state-to-state conflict (or near conflict) in the Asia Pacific ocean. The conflict environment, not to put too fine a point on it, of China versus, well, everyone or anyone else in the waters that China regards as its near-abroad and everyone one else regards as, more or less, the high seas.