Country Report: South Korea (March-April 2022)
Country Report: South Korea (March & April 2022) Shin Munkyoung and Jung Seyoon The outcome of South Korea’s presidential election in which the conservative candidate Yoon Suk-yeol won […]
Country Reports
South Korea
Country Report: South Korea (January-February 2022)
In January and February, with increasing tension across the border between Russia and Ukraine, the US seemed to move the focus to Europe after its withdrawal from Afghanistan, […]
Country Report: South Korea (January 2022)
As the 2022 presidential election slated for next March looms large, South Korean newspaper headlines in November and December were dominated by coverage of the election campaign trails […]
Country Report: South Korea (November 2021)
On September 15, a flurry of events marked a watershed moment in the Indo-Pacific region. Following its earlier launch of new cruise missiles, North Korea fired short-range ballistic […]
Country Report: South Korea (September 2021)
With the end of his term drawing near, President Moon seemed to be in a race against the clock to revive the stalled Korea peace initiative. His August […]
China
Country Report: China (December 2021)
In late 2021, Chinese analysts devoted significant attention to the Biden administration’s global technology policy, asserting that technological competition has become a key facet of the broader strategic […]
Country Report: China (October 2021)
In mid-2021, Chinese analysts continued to focus particular attention on India. They assessed the Modi administration’s economic diplomacy and its implications for regional relations. They also carefully evaluated […]
Country Report: China (June 2021)
In mid-2021, a Chinese analysis assessed the long-lasting impact of former Prime Minister Abe on Sino–Japanese relations. The author lamented the deterioration of Sino–Japanese relations in April, especially […]
Country Report: China (April 2021)
In early 2021, Chinese analysts assessed new directions in US foreign policy under the Biden administration, with particular reference to China and Russia. They examined the impact of […]
Country Report: China (February 2021)
In the winter of 2020–2021, Chinese analysts contemplated a world in flux, with the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to devastate the United States and the arrival of new leadership […]
Japan
Country Report: Japan (March-April 2022)
Country Report: Japan (March-April 2022) Only one subject, understandably, has preoccupied Japanese media coverage of foreign relations over the past two months: the war unleashed by Russia in […]
Country Report: Japan (February 2022)
Two themes have garnered the bulk of attention in Japan’s foreign relations at the beginning of 2022: (1) Japan-Russia relations in the context of the looming war over […]
Country Report: Japan (December 2021)
The autumn of 2021 was a time of transition in leadership without indication of any shift in foreign policy. The relationship with China had turned colder in 2020 […]
Country Report: Japan (August 2021)
International relations were mostly on hold in July, August, and the first half of September as Japanese concentrated on the Tokyo Olympics and the election for LDP president […]
Country Report: Japan (June 2021)
The late spring of 2021 saw Japan solidify its alliance with the United States in a summit between Suga Yoshihide and Joe Biden and in the multilateral G7 […]
Russia
Country Report: Russia (January 2022)
In late 2021 and the beginning of 2022, close attention was paid to the Biden-Xi virtual summit, the summit of the democracies, Sino-US tensions over Taiwan, the impact […]
Country Report: Russia (November 2021)
If during the first half of 2021 debates emerged over the merits of an alliance with China, Sino-Russian relations fell under the radar in the fall. Casting doubt […]
Country Report: Russia (September 2021)
Russian publications covered some important developments in the late summer of 2021. One was the death knell to eight years of Russo-Japanese exploration of a diplomatic breakthrough: a […]
Country Report: Russia (July 2021)
In the late spring and early summer of 2021, Russians intensely discussed China even as they reaffirmed negative assessments of Biden’s foreign policy. Some pressed for a formal […]
Country Report: Russia (May 2021)
For a champion of multipolarity, Russia was increasingly feeling isolated with only one partner in the spring of 2021. The Biden administration was deemed hostile with no prospect […]
ASAN PLENUM 2019
OPEN FORUM
Stepping Up to the Challenge and Embracing Pragmatism: Two Visions of Foreign Policy in the South Korean Presidential Election of 2022
The South Korean presidential election is only days away and, unlike past elections, the outcome is difficult to predict. There is, however, one thing that we can be […]
J. James Kim
National Commentaries
“AUKUS, Australia, and China”
A View from the United States
From an American perspective, Australia’s turn away from China in recent years and its embrace of AUKUS in 2021 are considered appropriate and welcome responses to both China’s […]
June Teufel Dreyer
A View from Australia
Australia’s relations with China have not been healthy for some years, but they deteriorated further in 2020-2021 when Beijing introduced savage import restrictions to punish Canberra for proposing […]
John Fitzgerald
A View from the United Kingdom
The announcement of a new trilateral security alliance between the UK, Australia and the US on September 15, 2021 took many observers by surprise. This was not just […]
Kerry Brown