Foreign Relations

North Korea’s ballistic missile tests in July 2006 shone a spotlight on security issues in East Asia. The media paid much attention to political challenges facing the U.S.-ROK alliance. Another…

During the past few years, the United States has begun three important initiatives that alter its defense commitment to South Korea (Republic of Korea [ROK]). First, Washington started to decrease…

By Troy Stangarone The 2008 financial crisis began to raise questions about whether the United States was a waning power soon to be eclipsed by a rising China. Despite China’s economy still being less than half the size the United States at the time, its vast population and consistent high levels of growth made China…

By José Luis León-Manríquez To paraphrase the Rolling Stones, the song is not surprising and has been played more than once: the DPRK is a well-known exporter of weapons. Yet this time the singer (Cuba) is brand new. It is also noteworthy that the weapons traveled from Cuba to North Korea and not vice versa.…

By Andrew Kwon According to reports, this past weekend’s Xi-Obama Summit went “terrific.” While the two leaders spoke on sensitive issues, like cyber attacks, they found additional common ground on North Korea. They agreed to continue to pressure North Korea on its nuclear ambitions, but how far is China willing to go? In the past few…

By Troy Stangarone With K-Pop finally making its global breakout with Psy’s international smash hit Gangnam Style, one might have expected there to be a residual effect on how people around the world see South Korea. However, a recent poll by the BBC [1]on global views of 16 countries and the EU found South Korea…