Attendees at a reception last week by the South Korean Embassy at Tokyo’s New Otani Hotel, held to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Japan, were pleasantly surprised when Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba showed up to deliver a warm address. He was followed by former prime…
June 22, 2025
From June 16 to 17, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung attended the Group of Seven (G7) Summit in Kananaskis, Canada. This was Lee’s debut on the global stage just thirteen days after he was elected to office. Despite very little time to prepare for multilateral summit meetings, Lee’s attendance offered a timely opportunity to…
June 18, 2025
The strange scene of U.S. President Donald Trump huddled knee to knee with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the anteroom of Pope Francis’ funeral has prompted hopes that a so-far-elusive peace deal in the war between Russia and Ukraine is within reach. Whether that comes to pass remains to be seen. But one product of…
April 30, 2025
Executive Summary This project builds upon earlier research tracing U.S.-South Korea signaling on “the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.” The current project was based on the premise that there is a significant gap between such diplomatic rhetoric and the U.S.-ROK alliance’s preparedness to navigate an actual conflict between the United States…