Putting a Spoke in the Wheel: Russian Efforts to Weaken U.S. Alliances in Northeast Asia

Featuring:

James D.J. Brown
Associate Professor of Political Science
Temple University, Japan Campus

Moderated by:

Kyle Ferrier
Fellow and Director of Academic Affairs
Korea Economic Institute of America

Thursday, June 18, 2020 
9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. (U.S. EDT)
10:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. (KST)  

Livestreamed via Zoom

Russia is widely accused of employing a range of instruments—both overt and covert—to undermine Western unity. Though it has received less attention, Russia is also engaged in comparable activities to weaken U.S. alliances with South Korea and Japan. Overall, Moscow has achieved several tactical victories, but has yet to seriously damage U.S.-led alliance structures within the region. All the same, Seoul and Tokyo must remain watchful of Moscow’s activities, especially since there are signs of increased cooperation between Russia and China in exploiting wedge issues between the United States and its allies, thereby potentially combining China’s economic weight with Russia’s skills in influence operations.

Please join us for a discussion with Russian foreign policy expert James D.J. Brown on how Moscow is attempting to divide Washington from its allies in Northeast Asia and the implications for these key relationships.

James D.J. Brown is Associate Professor in Political Science at Temple University, Japan Campus. His main areas of expertise are Russian-Japanese relations and international energy politics. His research has previously been published in various academic journals, including International Politics, Politics, Asia Policy, Post-Soviet Affairs, Problems of Post-Communism, Europe-Asia Studies, and The Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. He is the author of Japan, Russia and their Territorial Dispute: The Northern Delusion (2017) and “Japan’s Foreign Relations in Asia” (edited with Jeff Kingston, 2017).

Kyle Ferrier is a Fellow and Director of Academic Affairs and Research at the Korea Economic Institute of America. He is in charge of managing KEI’s outreach efforts to foster collaboration between the academic and policy communities. He writes on U.S.-Korea relations, South Korean foreign affairs, South Korean domestic and international economic policy, and the political economy of the Indo-Pacific. He is a regular contributor to KEI’s blog, The Peninsula, and The Diplomat.