Foreign Relations

The world of the twenty-first century is not the world in which I grew up. Then, influence and power were centered in the so-called industrialized world—Western Europe, Japan, and North…

From Kia, with Love: Korean Greenfield Investment Revives a Community On Friday, February 26, in a flashy rock concert atmosphere, a much awaited and well attended ribbon cutting ceremony took…

Beginning of Korea-India Relations, Shrouded in Legend Every year, India traditionally invites a foreign head of state to attend the anniversary of the establishment of the Indian Republic in 1950.…

Korea is a relative newcomer to the negotiation of bilateral FTAs, concluding its first agreement with Chile only in 2003. Prior to engaging in bilateral FTAs, Korea emphasized the multilateral…

By Jenna Gibson This week, South Korea became the first Asian country to sign a space cooperation pact with the United States, the first step for the two countries to collaborate on projects like Mars exploration, launching a moon lander, and expanding possible uses of the International Space Station. This announcement strengthens what is already…

By Kyle Ferrier The Panama Papers have already exposed a number of national leaders in schemes to hide personal wealth in shell companies and will be of greater consequence in early May when the full list of businesses created through Mossack Fonseca are made available. Most of those implicated have utilized the services of the…

By William Brown China surprised many Washington pundits by signing on in February to what looks like fairly tough trade sanctions on North Korea.  Most importantly, it agreed to put a halt to its purchases of coal and metal ores to the extent that these provide foreign exchange to North Korea’s military and to the…

By Jenna Gibson Twenty five years ago today, South Korea established the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), officially cementing its unprecedented transition from aid recipient to donor. It’s a story that Koreans are rightly very proud of – in the 1960s, still reeling from the Korean War, the country’s per capita income was less than…