Policy Forum

Currently facing tension against the West following the Ukrainian crisis, Russia is taking an anti-US/anti-West stance on the surface under state leadership, but there is a need to focus on its behavior to become an active actor in the liberal market economy under liberal democracy as opposed to standing in its opposition. In summary, Russia clearly recognizes that it cannot reject the current (neo-) liberal international political economic order in order to prevail past the interference of core Western countries, amidst limitations in terms of Russia’s position and role within the global capitalist system.

Under the influence of the reorganized East Asian order in 2010s, the relations between Park Geun-hye government and the Japanese Cabinet of Shinzo Abe have worsened over the history issues and their China policies. The pattern of the security and economic cooperation evading the historical disputes since the normalization of ties with Japan in 1965 has broken down. The conflicts between Korea and Japan over history have subsided with the U.S.-brokered agreement on comfort women on Dec. 28, 2015.

The cause of new disputes in Northeast Asia lies in the success of the Chinese policy of reform and door-opening and the Communist Party’s resultant stronger grip on power and greater influence on politics (typified by Communist Party-based centralism), economy (reform and door-opening policies), military (with modernization of its military), society (Chinese type of socialist society) and culture (spiritual civilization befitting the Chinese socialist system).

The inauguration of the conservative Trump administration has raised both expectations and concerns that it would establish an East Asia policy different from that of the Obama administration and even from the conventional policies of the Republican Party. Amid the anticipation of a fundamental change in the foreign policies of the U.S., the basic line of the Trump administration is seen as based on its judgement that the Obama administration failed to safeguard U.S. interests and check the rise of China.

This paper aims to examine the implications of Donald Trump’s presidential election victory with regard to the global political economic system, and the foreign policy direction of the new administration in the United States. To this end, by analyzing the continuity and changes in post-Cold War US grand strategy, this paper reveals that the Trump administration will deploy a new Jacksonian foreign policy that deviates from the existing liberal consensus.

This paper considers the ‘Two Plus Four Agreement’ and draws several implications for the Korean reunification. German reunification was formally completed first by the Unification Treaty of 31 August 1990, and then by the ‘Two Plus Four Agreement.’ While the former treaty bears legal significance in that it integrated two different legal systems, the latter is politically meaningful as it finally resolved the ‘German Question’, a legacy of World War II, and consequently ushered in a new era for the European international order.

Alliances and partnerships are two distinct concepts, both in theory and policy. South Korea and the U.S. have been allies since they signed the treaty in 1953, formalizing the bilateral relationship as an alliance. Still, ROK-U.S. relations have been widely perceived as a partnership as well as an alliance. It would be helpful to reconstruct the terms so that they are considered complementary. Particularly in light of China’s recent criticism of the ROK-U.S. alliance as a Cold War relic, it is necessary to transform the alliance into a combination of a comprehensive strategic military alliance and a global partnership. Currently, the alliance is undergoing a transformation, and it is also facing substantive dilemmas over the North Korean nuclear issue and changes in the U.S.-China relationship.

We are currently witnessing an emerging trend with regard to approach to North Korean politics, which places emphasis on the influence of the so-called symbolic, cognitive elements on actors’ choice, including the redefinition of North Korea as a “theatre state.” The author would like to discuss the operating mechanism of North Korean policies based on human being’s diverse cognitive bias as identified in recent psychological studies. This is part of the effort to explain North Korean politics on a personal level. Combined with political and economic factors, psychological factors contribute to the stabilization of North Korean terror politics and control.