USKI’s Joel Wit and Jenny Town published an article on ForeignPolicy.com discussing what the successful North Korean rocket launch means for US foreign policy towards the DPRK. The Obama administration now faces the choice of how his record on North Korea will be remembered: a hard problem more or less contained or a rogue state armed with dozens of nuclear weapons well on its way to threatening the US. Obama’s second term is a second chance to tackle this important foreign policy issue. Is he up to the challenge?
Read the article “Launch This” at ForeignPolicy.com.
Joel Wit is a visiting scholar at the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and founder of its North Korea website, 38 North. Jenny Town is a research associate at the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and editor of 38 North.
On September 22, 2011, the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS, in partnership with Peking University Center for International and Strategic Studies and Chung Ang University Graduate School of International Studies will host a one-day conference exploring the numerous political changes that will take place throughout Asia and the United States in 2012.
Panels will discuss what 2012 leadership may look like for the United States, South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and North Korea, as well as what the effects of these changes might have on regional security and security cooperation in the future.
For a full list of speakers and to RSVP, click here.
The U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS is pleased to announce the release of the 2010 Edition of the SAIS U.S.-Korea Yearbook.
The Yearbook analyzes important developments in North and South Korea that characterized their relations in 2010. Each paper was written by a SAIS student from the course, “The Two Koreas: Contemporary Research and Record,” in the fall of 2010. Their insights were based on extensive reading and study as well as on numerous interviews conducted with government officials, scholars, NGO workers, academics and private sector experts both in Washington and Seoul.
In November 2010, the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS and Korea Institute of Finance, co-hosted the event, “State of the World Economy, 2011-2012: Whither or Wither?” sponsored by the Asian Studies Program at SAIS and the JoongAng Ilbo. This conference was meant to facilitate the exchange of predictions, as well as the assumptions underpinning those predictions, for the global economy over the next two years among such noted economists as Kevin H. O’Rourke, John B. Taylor, Daniel Rosen, Marcus Noland, and more. Special emphasis was placed on key economies such as China, India, Japan, and South Korea.
This volume contains the speeches and papers (further refined and edited post-conference) presented at that conference, in order to help inform and advise both policymakers and the general public on what may be in store in the coming years.
On March 29, 2011, the U.S.-Korea Institute and SAIS and Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress cohosted a seminar entitled, “Leadership Matters: The U.S.-ROK Alliance in the Lead Up to 2012.” The Honorable Lee Jae-oh, South Korea’s Minister of Special Affairs and 4 time National Assemblyman delivered the keynote speech for this event, entitled “Global Leadership: A New Vision for the U.S.-ROK Alliance,” highlighting such key issues the KORUS FTA, coordination on North Korea policy, and his vision for creating a Northeast Asian Community of Peace and Prosperity.
The U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS and the Center for the National Interest are pleased to announce the release of the joint report “Northeast Asia in Afghanistan: Whose Silk Road?“, co-authored by Jae H. Ku, Drew Thompson, and Daniel Wertz.
This report aims to review Northeast Asian interests in Afghanistan, assess their relevance to the United States’ bilateral relations in the region, and explore potential opportunities for expanded cooperation in the region. It reviews past contributions to Afghan reconstruction made by China, South Korea, and Japan, and analyzes each country’s strategic, economic, and security interests in Afghanistan. By exploring areas of common interest and potential cooperation, it aims to suggest opportunities to expand a multilateral strategy for bringing security and development to Afghanistan in the years ahead.
The research for this paper was generously funded through the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS, the Tokyo Foundation, and the China Institute of International Studies. Find out more here.
In a new USKI Working Paper, Jaclyn McEachern examines the analogies that have been drawn between North Korea and Iran, to help identify the limitations of each when trying to inform policy preferences. In doing so, she identifies four areas in which lessons can be extracted and applied in a cross-context setting. Download the paper here.
