East Asia
Taiwan and North Korea as Linked Flashpoints in US-China Relations
Is China's North Korea policy driven solely by stability on the Korean Peninsula, or is it deeply tied to Washington's stance on Taiwan? Hosts Sheena Chestnut Greitens and Ryan Vest sit down with Dr. Shuxian Luo to examine the strategic logic connecting two of…
Trapped by the Tradition: Reading Thucydides on Strategy and Policy
Thucydides’ history of the Peloponnesian War has gained new prominence as the United States engages in great-power competition with China, as that emerging geopolitical competition is often explained through parallels with the ancient rivalry between Athens…
A Plum for a Peach? Issue Linkage, Taiwan, and China’s Policy toward North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons Program
This article offers a novel explanation for the variation in China’s policy toward North Korea’s nuclear program. It argues that Beijing’s willingness to constrain Pyongyang is shaped by the perceived level of US assurance regarding Taiwan. Specifically,…
China’s Bid for Space Supremacy in the Middle East
Lawrence Rubin, Lincoln Hines, and Dayana Alagirova examine China's space diplomacy across the Middle East and North Africa by analyzing how regional states—specifically Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran—utilize space partnerships with Beijing to…
How the Soviet Collapse Shaped North Korea
Dr. Young argues that the fall of the USSR profoundly influenced Pyongyang's grand strategy. Rather than embracing reform, he explains that North Korea interpreted the Soviet collapse as a failure of ideological fervor and leadership.
Deep Ocean Danger: Unveiling the Threats to Global Connectivity
Charles Mok speaks on the rising pace of attacks on undersea cable infrastructure and why these vulnerabilities remain under-discussed despite carrying about 99% of intercontinental data. He explains how growing geopolitical tension, choke points, and greater…
Saving Socialism: What North Korea Learned from the Collapse of the Soviet Union
The sudden collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s sent shockwaves through the remaining communist world, confronting states like China and North Korea with an existential challenge. While scholars have extensively examined how Beijing interpreted and…
Choosing Orbits: China’s Space Diplomacy in the Middle East
China’s engagement with Africa, Asia, and the Middle East has drawn significant attention from the international community and American policymakers. One understudied dimension of this engagement is China’s expanding space diplomacy in the Middle East.…
25 Years of the US-China Commission: Taiwan, Tech Competition, and Over-the-Horizon Risks
Twenty-five years after its creation, how does the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission evaluate the evolving threat landscape? TNSR Editor-in-Chief Sheena Chestnut Greitens hosts Randall Schriver (Chairman of the Board, Institute for Indo-Pacific…
Toward Undersea Cable Resilience: The Case for Global Collaboration
Escalating threats to undersea cable networks, stemming from gray-zone sabotage at vulnerable chokepoints, are receiving long-overdue attention from policymakers and the public. Recent incidents highlight the strategic vulnerability of this infrastructure, due…
A Dystopian Take on Rising Authoritarianism and Resistance
Melissa Chan joins to discuss her career reporting across Asia and why she pivoted from journalism to co-creating the graphic novel "You Must Take Part In Revolution" with activist-artist Badiucao. We discuss the book’s visual style, the subversive…
Ensuring US Military Readiness in the Indo-Pacific
Eyck Freymann and Harry Halem argue that the United States can sustain conventional deterrence against China into the 2030s through targeted investments in logistics and the industrial base. They join our editors to discuss why a holistic view of the military…