Asia
China’s Brute Force Economics: Waking Up from the Dream of a Level Playing Field
Liza Tobin argues that the time has come for the United States and its allies to abandon the notion that competing on a level playing field with China’s state-led economy is possible and confront the reality of what she calls the country’s “brute force…
More Significance than Value: Explaining Developments in the Sino-Japanese Contest Over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands
The Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands are presently the focus of a dangerous contest between the People’s Republic of China and Japan, one that even now has the potential to spark a military conflict that could draw in the United States. How has this come about?…
It’s Time to Make a New Deal: Solving the INF Treaty’s Strategic Liabilities to Achieve U.S. Security Goals in Asia
The United States and its allies need a different approach to deter China in the Western Pacific. After building islands in the South China Sea’s disputed waters, claiming they were for peaceful purposes, China recently militarized them. Chinese military…
From Engagement to Rivalry: Tools to Compete with China
To arrive at a new consensus, the United States needs to address the weaknesses in Americans’ knowledge of China while rethinking the connections between the ways China is analyzed and how policy is made.
Japan’s Security Policy in the “Abe Era”: Radical Transformation or Evolutionary Shift?
Widely considered Japan’s most powerful prime minister in decades, Shinzo Abe has responded to a changing security environment in the Asia-Pacific — including an increasingly powerful and assertive China and growing North Korean nuclear threat — by…
Policy Roundtable: Are the United States and China in a New Cold War?
We asked a group of experts to discuss whether the tensions between the United States and China amount to a 21st century Cold War.
Marching Toward a U.S.-North Korea Summit: The Historical Case for Optimism, Pessimism, and Caution
The history of denuclearization efforts on the Korean peninsula gives reason for pessimism, caution, and optimism. Attempting to critically engage that history can help the United States narrow uncertainty, prepare for a long diplomatic process should one…
Book Review Roundtable: Lost Opportunities in Vietnam
1. Max Boot’s Revisionist Look at Vietnam By Mark Atwood Lawrence Could the United States have won in Vietnam if only Americans had made different decisions about how to fight the war there? For the most part, academic historians have said no. The South…
Book Review Roundtable: The Future of Extended Deterrence
Our reviewers respond to Terence Roehrig's new book, "Japan, South Korea, and the United States Nuclear Umbrella," and ask some tough questions about the purpose and future of extended deterrence.
North Korea Defied the Theoretical Odds: What Can We Learn from its Successful Nuclearization?
How well do the existing theories about nuclear proliferation predict North Korea's successful nuclearization?
Policy Roundtable: Are There any Good Choices When it Comes to North Korea?
We asked a group of experts to weigh in on the North Korea crisis.
Too Much History: American Policy and East Asia in the Shadow of the Past
East Asian countries have a tendency to recall their historical grievances with rival nations, thus increasing the risk of eventual conflict. American policy toward East Asia, on the other hand, tends to have too short of a memory.