East Asia

For more than seventy years, East Asia has been the nexus of US presence and engagement in Asia. Today, the region is becoming a hotbed for the return of great power competition, with long-term US allies and partners like Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Taiwan next door to competitors and challengers including China, Russia, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. While East Asia continues to navigate a number of longstanding traditional security issues, it must also address the rise of online disinformation, competition to pioneer emerging technologies, and more.

Explore
Here’s how to use tech to turn COVID-19 tragedy into “a global immune system”

New Atlanticist Mar 31, 2025

Dispatch from Hong Kong: How the ‘geoeconomic city’ is weathering global headwinds

By Josh Lipsky, Ananya Kumar

From Chinese and US economic growth to stablecoin regulations, a recent visit to Hong Kong offered important insights for two Atlantic Council GeoEconomics Center experts.
China Digital Currencies
Here’s how to use tech to turn COVID-19 tragedy into “a global immune system”

New Atlanticist Mar 25, 2025

Reading between the lines of Taiwan’s new Quadrennial Defense Review

By Kitsch Liao

The recently released Quadrennial Defense Review offers a window into the Taiwanese military’s issues with prioritization, operational readiness, and manpower retention.
China East Asia
Here’s how to use tech to turn COVID-19 tragedy into “a global immune system”

Report Mar 24, 2025

How Beijing uses inducements as a tool of economic statecraft

By William Piekos

As strategic competition between the United States and China intensifies, Washington and Beijing seek every possible advantage to gain an edge. In this environment, both countries are increasingly turning to economic statecraft—the use of economic coercion or inducement to pursue strategic goals—to advance their interests.
China Economy & Business

Programs

The Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security’s Indo-Pacific Security Initiative equips the transatlantic community to “pivot” to the Asia-Pacific and to position the Atlantic Council to serve as the essential link between high-level transatlantic and Asian leaders and thinkers

EXPLORE THE Initiative

Content

Inflection Points

May 16, 2020

Here’s how to use tech to turn COVID-19 tragedy into “a global immune system”

By Frederick Kempe

It’s not too late for the United States – driven by the cutting-edge capabilities of its technology companies – to leverage the coronavirus tragedy into a historic opportunity. It would be built around scientifically novel but increasingly available means to prevent future pandemics through constructing a “global immune system.” It may seem hopelessly naïve to expect an even more ambitious degree of global collaboration now, but history’s lesson is that the alternatives are horrifying.

China Coronavirus

In the News

May 15, 2020

Kroenig in the Financial Times: Machiavelli offered a compelling argument for the superiority of republics

By Atlantic Council

On Friday, May 15, the Financial Times published a Letter to the Editor by Scowcroft Center Deputy Director Matthew Kroenig, in which he reminds readers that Machiavelli offered a convincing defense of republics as a superior system of government. With the US-China rivalry intensifying, many are wondering whether autocracy or democracy is a better form […]

China Politics & Diplomacy

In the News

May 15, 2020

Robert Manning in Foreign Policy on China’s control of the South China Sea

By Atlantic Council

China Coronavirus

In the News

May 15, 2020

Livingston quoted in Slate on the impact on ‘middle tier’ players of an absent Chinese-US leadership
China Indo-Pacific

In the News

May 15, 2020

Kroenig and Ashford in Foreign Policy: Should the United States facilitate regime change?

By Atlantic Council

On May 15, Foreign Policy published a biweekly column featuring Scowcroft Center Deputy Director Matthew Kroenig and the Cato Institute’s Emma Ashford discussing the latest news in international affairs. In this column, they debate the risks, downsides, and rewards of facilitating regime change. The column opens with a discussion of US opposition to Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, […]

China Coronavirus

In the News

May 13, 2020

Kroenig in Foreign Policy: The United States Should Not Align with Russia to Counter China

By Atlantic Council

On May 13, Foreign Policy published an op-ed by Scowcroft Center Deputy Director Matthew Kroenig in which he argues the United States should not align with Russia to counter China. Instead, the United States should leverage its democratic advantages and work with allies to counter both Russia and China. While Russia and China may be […]

China Politics & Diplomacy

In the News

May 11, 2020

Hadley in the Washington Post: The next stimulus package can be used to help the US compete with China

By Atlantic Council

Atlantic Council Executive Vice Chair and former national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley argues in the Washington Post that the next stimulus package to mitigate the domestic economic impact of COVID-19 can also be used to counter China. Hadley and co-author Anja Manuel list several provisions that would help the United States compete effectively with […]

China Coronavirus

EnergySource

May 11, 2020

Increasing mutual dependence in Sino-Gulf relations is changing the strategic landscape

By Christian Le Miere

The conventional wisdom that the United States is the only viable partner for Gulf states is now being challenged by a new reality: the main importer of Gulf oil is now China. At the same time, China’s strategic goals increasingly encompass stability in the Middle East, while a more activist foreign policy under Xi Jinping ensures greater involvement in the security, as well as economic, discourse in the region.

China Energy & Environment

New Atlanticist

May 8, 2020

COVID-19 is increasing strategic uncertainty in Southeast Asia

By Adam Schwarz

Nothing that’s happened on COVID-19 yet—including China’s much commented-on ‘mask diplomacy’—is going to sway opinions or foreign policy alignments in Southeast Asia in fundamental ways. But that could change depending on what steps China and the United States take as their relationship moves—as it now seems likely to do—in a sharper, more antagonistic direction in the months and years to come.

Coronavirus East Asia

New Atlanticist

May 7, 2020

Achieving supply chain independence in a post-COVID economy

By Michael Greenwald

The United States can no longer remain content with the notion of a Chinese economic threat arising in the distant future. The advent of COVID-19 has made it more apparent than any other time including the US-China trade War that now is the moment for the United States, European Union, and other like-minded countries to diversify supply chains away from China.

China Coronavirus
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Experts

Fellow

Roderick Kefferpütz

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Europe Center

Central Europe China

Fellow

Brian Kerg

Nonresident Fellow

Indo-Pacific Security Initiative Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Conflict East Asia

Staff

Emily E. Kim

Program Assistant

Indo-Pacific Security Initiative Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Korea Security & Defense

Fellow

Inwook Kim

Nonresident Fellow

empowerME Rafik Hariri Center & Middle East programs

English Geopolitics & Energy Security

Fellow

Jongsun Kim

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Defense Industry Defense Policy

Fellow

Sarah Kirchberger

Nonresident Senior Fellow

GeoStrategy Initiative Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

China Defense Industry
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Events

Public Event Mon, March 23, 2026 • 10:00 am ET

Kurt Campbell on what to expect from Trump’s Beijing visit
China Economy & Business Politics & Diplomacy Technology & Innovation