E-Notes

In October 2006, al-Qaeda in Iraq consolidated its alliances and declared itself a state—the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI).  Despite the fact that ISI created ministries and other trappings of a state, it never controlled territory in a manner...

The narrative that the U.S. has made major concessions to North Korea while gaining very little in return is now the mainstream view in the Western expert commentary on the June 12 Singapore summit between Donald Trump and Kim...

Donald Trump has upended not only the sanctions regime, but also the framework of diplomacy involving North Korea. A scramble is bound to ensue for leverage in shaping the geopolitics of Northeast Asia and for asserting national identities in...

The long-discussed summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un—beset by doubts and delays—finally took place on June 12. The meeting itself was brief—a 35 minute closed-door discussion with only the two leaders’ translators present, followed by a public meeting...

Rarely has a high-profiled international event come with the caveat “assuming it actually happens” in every news report, but with the summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, journalists writing about it had to throw the phrase in because...

The current meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim, we must never forget, is about Korea above all. She was a unified country under the Choson dynasty from 1392 until 1910 when imperial Japan annexed her. After World War...

The very public demands made by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) or, more accurately, by its current chairman, Devin Nunes, and other members of the Republican majority, for information related to intelligence activities connected with...

North Korea still is described routinely as the “world’s last Stalinist country” whose population is allegedly always on the brink of starvation. These descriptions are, however, outdated. Kim Jong-un’s North Korea, while still a grossly repressive and very poor...

U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis has been very busy of late. At the end of July, he was in Honolulu to formally rename the United States Pacific Command (PACOM) the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), in overt recognition of...

In 2018, the situation on the Korean Peninsula once again came into the spotlight. However, this time, the reasons for the increased attention are less disturbing than last year—when North Korea and the United States exchanged belligerent statements while...