August 1st, 2009

Japan must try to slow America's decline

Shorenstein APARC Director Emeritus Daniel Okimoto considers America's role in the global downturn and posits that Japan can best help the United States by getting its own economic house in order. Read more »

July 30th, 2009

"Lab" model in natural sciences adopted to produce top-notch scholars in Korean studies

A sociology professor and the director of Korean Studies Program at Stanford, Gi-Wook Shin, discusses the challenges of being a social scientist of Korean studies working in U.S. academia.

• » Strategic Initiative for Korean Studies (for full article)

July 23rd, 2009

Contexts of terror in Indonesia

Jim Castle is a friend of mine. I have known him since we were graduate students in Indonesia in the late 1960s. While I labored in academe he went on to found and grow CastleAsia into what is arguably the most highly regarded private-sector consultancy for informing and interfacing expatriate and domestic investors and managers in Indonesia. Friday mornings he hosts a breakfast gathering of business executives at his favorite hotel, the JW Marriott in the Kuningan district of Jakarta. Read more »

July 9th, 2009

Henry Rowen proposes "A New York Solution for Bailing out California"

In an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal, SPRIE Co-Director Henry Rowen looks to 1970s New York City for a solution to California's current budgetary crisis. While then-president Gerald Ford refused a federal bailout of the bankrupt city, in the end Washington did provide assistance. California needs help, Rowen argues, but not without reform, and an unconditional bailout will only delay that needed reform. Read more »

June 11th, 2009

Obama's Trifecta: So Far, So Good

US President Barack Hussein Obama's speech on 4 June 2009 in Cairo, the second of three planned trips to Muslim-majority countries, was outstanding. Read more »

June 8th, 2009

North Korea: extreme but not crazy

In recent months, North Korea has put on trial two young American journalists working for former Vice President Al Gore's Current TV, launched a long-range rocket, tested its second nuclear device, and has renounced the Beijing Six-Party nuclear talks. The regime's actions are a source of serious concern, David Straub writes for cbsnews.com Read more »

May 29th, 2009

Commentary: How to deal with North Korea

Daniel Sneider writes "Barring a diplomatic miracle, the missile and nuclear tests carried out by North Korea in April and May have driven a stake into the heart of the denuclearization talks carried out for the last six years." Read more »

April 9th, 2009

Despite North Korea's much-publicized rocket launch, time is not on the side of Kim Jong-Il, observes Daniel Sneider

Writing in the New York Times, Shorenstein APARC's Associate Director for Research Daniel Sneider characterizes North Korea's recent rocket launch as the act of "a weak, if not failing, state whose frail leader has glimpsed his own mortality and now is urgently trying to fashion his own succession before he passes from the scene." Read more »

November 10th, 2008

Obama administration will give diplomacy a chance to deal with the North Korean nuclear problem

David Straub, the acting director of Korean Studies Program, argues that Obama administration will finally give diplomacy a chance to deal with the North Korean nuclear problem. He stresses that Senator Obama understands the difficulties of dealing with North Korea and will proceed carefully. If North Korea does not respond to this more nuanced American approach, he concludes, the international community is likely to be more supportive of U.S. efforts to constrain North Korean behavior.

• » Dong-A Ilbo (Korean)

November 5th, 2008

Trilateral relations of U.S. and two Koreas under new Obama administration

"With the current affairs such as the financial crisis and the Iraq War," Gi-Wook Shin, the director of Shorenstein APARC, says "the new Obama administration may not have the North Korea issues on its priority list for a while. Lee Myung-bak administration, meanwhile, is urged to revisit the workable policies of the past as well as to initiate the pragmatic diplomacy towards the collaboration between South Korea and the U.S."

• » Op-ed in Dong-A Ilbo (in Korean)
• » Interview with Yonhap News (in Korean)

November 4th, 2008

Global financial reformers must heed Asia's clout

Professor Phillip Lipscy discusses the current international financial crisis and provides insight for future reforms. "The IMF and World Bank should be reformed to better reflect the interests and concerns of rising economic powers. Voting shares need to be further redistributed to reflect underlying economic realities. Decision making rules should be modified to give greater weight or agenda-setting authority to regional actors -- the US may have a strong interest in loans to Mexico, but Japan may have a greater stake in Indonesia. Assignment of the top positions should be made truly competitive. Core functions should be decentralized -- both institutions are headquartered in Washington, impeding employment of top talent from Asia and limiting intellectual exchange." Read more »

October 21st, 2008

U.S. Policy in Korea after the elections

Will the 2008 election bring dramatic change in U.S. Korea policy? Daniel Sneider, the associate director of research at APARC says "There are important differences of emphasis in the approaches of both candidates, but the bottom line is that both men are likely to pick up where President George W. Bush leaves off." Read more »

August 4th, 2008

In the case of Dokdo: A lesson learned

Shorenstein APARC director Gi-Wook Shin and Korean Studies associate director David Straub point out the importance of building long-term strategies by top foreign policy experts in the international community.

• » Joong Ang Daily (Korean)
• » Joong Ang Daily (English)

August 1st, 2008

Korea needs low-key, long-term approach to Dokdo/Takeshima controversy, says Straub

Korean Studies Program associate director David Straub argued in the Nelson Report, a top Washington, D.C. policy newsletter, that Korea needs to take a strategic approach toward the controversy with Japan over the Dokdo Islets ("Takeshima" in Japanese). Widely reported in Korea, Straub's message urged Korea to base its policy on the fact that it has effective control of the islets. Read more »

July 18th, 2008

Besieged South Korean president needs to make a fresh start

Shorenstein APARC director Gi-Wook Shin says that President Lee still has time to recover from the diplomatic missteps that have characterized his first months in office. He urges Lee to focus his U.S. policy on establishing a strong relationship with the incoming American president. Article in Korean. Read more »

July 3rd, 2008

Taiwan should be included in joint talks on developing resources of the South China Sea says Shorenstein APARC Visiting Scholar Song Yann-huei

"Taiwan has territorial rights, sovereign rights and jurisdiction over islands in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, as well as, developmental and managerial rights to important resources in these areas," says Dr. Yann-huei Song. "It will be difficult for the South China Sea and the East China Sea to become truly peaceful and cooperative maritime areas" if Taiwan were not included in talks about developing the resources of these areas. Dr. Song would like to correct the translation in the online English version of the article. He says the translation says that in "2002 Taiwan built a runway on Itu Aba Island of the Spratly Island group in the South China Sea. In fact, it was built at the end of 2007, and Taiwan's President Chen visited the island by C-130 military cargo plane on February 2, 2008."

• » Taipei Times: "Include Taiwan in China Sea talks"

June 24th, 2008

The quiet revolution in the Indian workforce

Shorenstein APARC senior research scholar Rafiq Dossani reflects on the revolution in higher education in India, which "has still not been understood, even within India, perhaps because of the speed of its happening." Read more »

April 24th, 2008

Shin: Party is over

Gi-Wook Shin, Shortenstein APARC director, urges President Lee to start strengthening U.S.-South Korea alliance, particularly, with cooperation on ratification of FTA and North Korea policy.

• » New Beginnings: Post-Election Prospects for U.S.-ROK Relations
• » Chosun.com (article in Korean)

April 16th, 2008

Armacost: U.S., South Korea must move past years of missteps

Shorenstein APARC Distinguished Fellow Michael Armacost discusses U.S.-South Korea ties and points out challenges ahead. "From free trade to North Korea's nuclear threat," writes Armacost in the Christian Science Monitor, "both sides must move past years of missteps."

• » New Beginnings: Toward a New Era of U.S.-South Korean Partnership
  
• » New Beginnings: Post-Election Prospects for U.S.-ROK Relations

Read more »

March 21st, 2008

Sneider: Cautionary lessons for U.S.-Korea relationship

Daniel Sneider, associate director for research at Shorenstein APARC, gives a few cautionary lessons on U.S.-Korea relations. Read more »

December 21st, 2007

A Mandate with Caveats: Lee Myung Bak's Election, Politics, and Policy

This is a slightly revised version of remarks from the December 20th panel discussion of "South Korea's Presidential Elections: Growing Pains of a Young Democracy," held by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in conjunction with the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS, Johns Hopkins University.

• » A Mandate with Caveats: Lee Myung Bak's Election, Politics, and Policy

December 20th, 2007

Desire for a new government and the Lee Myung-Bak administration

Gi-Wook Shin analyzes that the result of Korean presidential election shows Koreans' concerns on economic issues and that Lee would seek to implement conservative pragmatism.

• » Korea Times (in Korean)

October 26th, 2007

Japan wants to do its part to help global security

Concerns by American officials that Japan recent steps to shed its postwar pacifism means that Japan will no longer be an ally in international security are alarmist according to Shorenstein APARC's Associate Director for Research, Daniel Sneider. Read more »

September 24th, 2007

Summit: right idea at wrong time?

The inter-Korean summit planned for early October is the right idea, but it may be taking place at the wrong time, and in the wrong place. Read more »

August 16th, 2007

After 60 years, Pakistanis struggle to find right course

Two countries with a common and ancient civilization, India and Pakistan, celebrated 60 years of independence from colonial rule this week. At the time of independence, both countries were in danger of collapsing from internal and external threats. This greatly influenced both countries' subsequent turn toward centralism - in India's case, statism, and in Pakistan's case, army rule. Read more »