The simmering tensions in East Asia are echoes of Washington’s Cold War intrigues—and the Pentagon’s not-so-secret plans for battle with China.
Parsing the East Asian Powder Keg
read more
North Korea
Nuclear Nightmares: Securing the World Before It Is Too Late
Without disarmament our nuclear nightmares may become realities — but there is still time to avoid disaster.
Seeking Justice—Or at Least the Truth—for “Comfort Women”
A growing global movement is ensuring that if the Japanese government won’t hold itself to account for its crimes against women, then history will.
Breaking the Rules
Both Koreas have recognized at some deep level that the rules of the game are rigged in favor of the already powerful.
Obama’s Half-Pivot to Asia
If Obama thought his short pass through Pacific would boost the much-vaunted U.S. “pivot” to Asia, he soon discovered that the world is not cooperating with his best-laid plans.
Breathless in North Korea
For 60 years, Koreans on both sides of the DMZ have awaited a peace treaty. Instead they’ve gotten an arms race and political repression.
Looking Backwards, Pivoting Sideways
Washington’s past and present foreign policies are sustaining the fraught security environment in East Asia.
My Strategic Impatience
For North Korea to rise higher on the list of U.S. priorities, Washington policymakers will have to stop considering it in isolation.
Why North Korea Today Is Not East Germany 1989
Policymakers have long predicted that North Korea will go the way of East German Communism. Not so fast.
Poem: Infinite Regress of War
Sepulchre of repeated images / Won’t someone shatter the pure reflection of glass?