East Asia

With Russia on the Sidelines, China Moves Aggressively into Ukraine

By James Brooke

On Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, the most active foreign actor is not Russia. It’s China. On the Danube, Chinese investors are mulling buying a Ukrainian river shipping company that could insert Chinese products deep into Eastern Europe. At the two big ports flanking Odesa, China Harbor Engineering Company just finished dredging Yuzhny and now is […]

North Korea May Be Trying to Drive a Wedge Between the United States and South Korea

By Ashish Kumar Sen

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is likely trying to drive a wedge between the United States and South Korea with his uncharacteristic offer of an olive branch to Seoul, according to the Atlantic Council’s Robert A. Manning. On January 3, North Korea reopened a border hotline with South Korea after two years of silence. That […]

Ask the General: Steps to Demonstrate an Operational ICBM

By Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

2018 Will Be A Year of Living Dangerously On The Korean Peninsula

By Robert A. Manning

As troubling as current tensions are, 2018 promises to be an even more dangerous year on the Korean Peninsula. Amid conflicting signals from US President Donald J. Trump’s administration and anticipated hints of flexibility in North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s New Year’s statement, one immediate question is whether and under what circumstances Washington will be […]

Miscalculations, Machismo, and Military Misjudgment Could Create New Global Hot Spots

By Daniel V. Speckhard

Connecting 2017’s political and military missteps to 2018’s global economic outlook The shift toward nationalist populism, demonstrated by the sweeping political changes around the world in 2017, has throughout history been a harbinger of global instability and conflict, and could directly affect both the international security landscape and global economy in 2018. Looking back, it […]