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Asia
New Moon on the Rise, but No Revolution?
Through the run-up to South Korea’s presidential election that took place on May 9, 2017, much of the international attention was focused on Moon Jae-in—the clear favorite to win—and his foreign policy ideas and pronouncements. Tensions on the Korean...
Read more »How much has North Korea’s economy really changed?
This is a book review of Philip H. Park’s Rebuilding North Korea’s Economy: Politics and Policy. 2016. Seoul: Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University. North Korea’s economic system has changed under Kim Jong Un. Under the young leader’s...
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The First Hundred Days: Trump Meets Asia…and Reality
The first 100 days of a president’s term—the “honeymoon period,” during which his power and influence are believed to be their greatest—are, whether rightly or wrongly, regarded as a predictor of a president’s success during the remainder of his...
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Why the United States Went to War in Vietnam
Why did the U.S. go to war in Vietnam? This is a question historians continue to debate. One of the main reasons it remains a source of argument is that it is difficult to say when the U.S. war...
Read more »Trump’s Risky Reliance on China to Handle North Korea
The Diplomat It’s been an odd few weeks on the Korean peninsula. Many blame North Korean military parades and the recent missile test. Though such events may be the primary causes for the current tensions, they are fairly commonplace...
Read more »Cross-Strait Tension Will Increase If Taiwan Buys New Weapons
The National Interest Since the inauguration of Tsai Ing-wen as president of Taiwan in May 2016, cross-Strait relations between Taiwan and China have been deteriorating at an alarming rate. The cooling of relations between the two sides of the...
Read more »A New Season of Turmoil in Kashmir
Foreign Affairs With spring, yet more turmoil has come to significant parts of Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir. Widespread violence has resulted in several deaths and has left at least 200 injured. The trigger this time appears to have been...
Read more »The Mar-a-lago meetings: Trump, China and – yes – Philadelphia
Philadelphia Business Journal As President Donald Trump prepares to meet with President Xi Jinping for the first time this week, the world is watching closely. Of particular importance is the ‘gut feeling’ which each leader will take away following...
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Why Do Some Nations Prosper? The Case of North and South Korea
Economists have debated for years why it is that some nations prosper while others do not. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea, DPRK) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea, ROK), for example, started out as poor...
Read more »China brazenly arrests a Taiwanese activist — and the Trump administration says nothing
The Washington Post On March 19, Taiwanese human rights and democracy activist Lee Ming-che traveled to China and has not been heard from since. It took China 10 days to confirm that Lee was, in fact, being detained for “endangering...
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