Seoul has gradually adopted a more outspoken position regarding the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and framed it in increasingly expansive terms—as a regional and global issue yet also directly linked to the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula. Nevertheless, the U.S.-ROK alliance faces a gap between such rhetoric and its political, military, and operational preparedness to navigate an actual conflict between the United States and China over Taiwan and the attendant risk of a simultaneous conflict in Korea.

KEI Fellow and Director of Academic Affairs, Clint Work, sat down to discuss his recent Korea Policy paper, Rhetoric vs. Reality: Seoul & Washington’s Strategic Alignment on Taiwan, with Markus Garlauskas, Director of the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. After discussing the paper, Clint asked Markus various questions about: challenges for the U.S.-ROK alliance surrounding a potential conflict between the U.S. and China over Taiwan and simultaneous conflict on the Korean Peninsula; the level of alliance discussions and preparation regarding such scenario(s); the adequacy of existing consultative and command and control (C2) structures; and the potential for multilateral contributions to peace and security on and around the Korean Peninsula. Throughout their conversation, they reference two recent reports produced by Markus and his team at the Atlantic Council: Deterrence is crumbling in Korea: How we can fix it and The United States and its allies must be ready to deter a two-front war and nuclear attacks in East Asia.