Asia

South Korea is currently engaged, once again, in a large-scale, expensive modernization of its military that aims to provide the country with a more robust and self-sufficient defense. The timing…

Globalization is a hallmark of the twenty first-century world. As transportation and telecommunications grow in both efficiency and level of performance and as the ambit of the Internet expands, it…

The penetration of the Internet in Korean society is usually seen as a positive development, perhaps even a model for other countries; more efficient bureaucracy, more political figures making use…

In the field of international security, few connections have been made between the Korean peninsula with the Middle East. Traditional regional studies literature focuses on Korean issues within the Asia…

  When Marja Vongerichten was 19, she met her birth mother for the first time since being adopted at age three. The first thing they bonded over, Marja says, was…

Born in Brooklyn, Chef Edward Lee always loved cooking. And after graduating from college with an English literature degree, he returned to that love and became an award-winning chef. Not…

In the decades following the Korean War, North Korea initiated a top-secret project to kidnap ordinary people from Japan, reeducate them, and turn them into international spies for the regime.…

Every year on January 13, the Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI) sponsors a luncheon in Washington, DC to mark Korean American Day and recognize the local and national Korean…

By William Brown Kim Jong-un has been unusually silent about the election of Donald Trump.  Does this represent fear of how a tough new U.S. administration might react to his usual posturing or indecision as to how to proceed with his dual nuclear weapons and economic development programs?  Perhaps Kim feels his plans are progressing…

By Sungeun (Grace) Chung Maintaining peaceful and cooperative international relations has become exceptionally important in a global society. There are two means that a nation can use to influence the preferences of international audiences: hard power and soft power. While exercising hard power is associated with the use of military and economic compulsion, soft power…

By Christopher Hurst Recent headlines around the world have highlighted the growth of refugees worldwide. There have been calls from the UN for the rich nations of the world to step up and help take in many of these people fleeing war and persecution from places in the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia. In…

By Nayoon Lee Two seemingly unrelated events point to a larger problem in Korea. In 2011, a prosecutor was caught for accepting a Mercedes Benz and a Chanel bag from the opposing lawyer. The lawyer and the prosecutor asserted that they were in a relationship, and the court decided the prosecutor was not guilty. What…