United States of America

“We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies.” The words of the 19thcentury British statesman Lord Palmerstone seem to resonate in 21st-century Asia. For example, China and…

Since Kevin Rudd and the Australian Labor Party ended Prime Minister John Howard’s 11 1/2 years in office in late 2007, each new government in Canberra has faced a very…

The four papers in Section 1 compare hedging behavior in countries on the frontline between the rising power China and the reigning hegemon, the United States. The first paper by…

Despite an inferior information communication environment, North Korea has a high capacity to conduct robust cyber operations aimed at collecting foreign intelligence, disrupting foreign comput-ers, information and communication systems, networks…

By Ken Gause The death of Kim Chong-il does not only mean a transition in leadership as can be seen with the apparent coronation of Kim Chong-un as the successor. It also likely means a change in the leadership structure, which will potentially have a dramatic impact on how Pyongyang makes decisions and how those…

By Troy Stangarone Years ago, The Economist developed the Big Mac Index to track how much a MacDonald’s Big Mac cost in countries around the world. The idea was to provide an understandable measure for purchasing power parity across countries since the Big Mac is a basic commodity that has spread across the world. Of…

By Troy Stangarone Despite the financial crisis of 2008, the global downturn that followed in 2009, and a year of tension between North and South Korea, the Kaesong Industrial Complex has been remarkably resilient. New numbers from the Ministry of Unification show that production at the complex was up 38 percent in September from a…

By Sarah K. Yun Soft power is the ability of a country or an actor to obtain what it wants through attraction and charm rather than through hard power and force.  The ultimate goal of fostering soft power is to promote a positive image in order to enhance one’s ability to influence.  Like many nations,…

Please join KEI and KIEP for a discussion about the first 10 years of KORUS and the future of the U.S.-Korea economic relationship.