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

The Digital Iron Curtain

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

The Digital Iron Curtain

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

The Digital Iron Curtain

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

New Atlanticist

May 30, 2013

The Digital Iron Curtain

By Andrew Ellis

While international hacking episodes linked to the governments of Iran, Syria, North Korea, and China have received widespread attention, media outlets often underreport government use of these tools against their own citizens.

China Cybersecurity

Event Recap

May 15, 2013

East Asia’s Future: Nationalism or Integration?

By Jason Harmala

In the second event of the Cross-Strait Series, Ambassador Julia Chang-Bloch moderated a panel discussion on the growing nationalism in northeast Asia and the implications of this trend for the integration of the region and the notion of an Asia-Pacific community.

East Asia

New Atlanticist

May 13, 2013

Park-Obama Summit Bolsters US-ROK Alliance, Impacts Northeast Asia

By Robert Manning

Successful summits tend to be more about symbolism than substance.  South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s summit with US President Barack Obama certainly had its share of symbolism: the first foreign trip of the ROK’s new first woman President, 60th anniversary of the US-ROK alliance, and US-ROK messages to North Korea, to Japan and China. But Ms. […]

East Asia Korea

New Atlanticist

May 7, 2013

Will Chinese Nationalism Lead to War with Japan and the United States?

By Banning Garrett

Will Chinese assertiveness and nationalism lead to war with Japan and the United States, trumping the impact of globalization and growing interdependence? A recent Financial Times commentary by John Plender recently raised this prospect, a familiar theme in much of the Western media and among Washington foreign policy pundits.

China East Asia

New Atlanticist

Apr 18, 2013

Chinese Cyber Espionage: US Must Shout but Also Listen

By Jason Healey

After years of silence, the United States has finally had enough of Chinese cyber-theft of trade secrets. American officials have repeatedly raised the issue with their Chinese counterparts in language that is increasingly frank.

China Cybersecurity

New Atlanticist

Apr 17, 2013

Coming Soon: the Un-Pivot to Asia

By Sarwar Kashmeri

The re-balancing of United States interests in the Far East, the so called “pivot to Asia” that was announced two years ago by the Obama administration, is now stuck in neutral. That is because what the world is witnessing on the Korean Peninsula is good old-fashioned power politics: A move by China to re-balance its […]

China Japan

New Atlanticist

Apr 16, 2013

To Stop North Korean Cyber Attacks, Start in Beijing

By Jason Healey

The recent cyber attacks on South Korea highlight four truths of cyber conflicts as they have actually been fought. The implications of three of them are obvious, the fourth not yet so. Such conflicts are disruptive, but far from warfare. And cyber conflicts are both easier to predict than popular myth has it and the […]

China Cybersecurity

New Atlanticist

Apr 16, 2013

Seeking to Avert Cyber War

By Frederick Kempe

Amid the buzz in Washington about new North Korean nuclear threats, President Barack Obama late last week summoned 15 of America’s top financial leaders to the White House to discuss what his administration considers to be threats that are more pervasive, more persistent and less manageable ‑ cyber risks. “The president scared the hell out […]

Cybersecurity Korea

New Atlanticist

Apr 15, 2013

How to Handle North Korea: The Pageant of Proposals

By Rajan Menon

By now, those of you who have been following the Korean crisis have encountered plenty of proposals from pundits. Let’s consider some of them.

China Korea

New Atlanticist

Apr 12, 2013

There’s No North Korea Crisis

By Robert A. Manning

From the hysterical TV portrayals of goose-stepping North Korean troops, breathless news reports of North Korean warnings of war, and maps depicting the range of imminent missile launches (complete with retired U.S. generals explaining the targets), you might think there is a crisis on the Korean Peninsula. But there is no crisis, only a farce.This […]

Korea
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Experts

Fellow

Tuvia Gering

Nonresident Fellow

Global China Hub

China Disinformation

Staff

Lauren D. Gilbert

Deputy Director

Indo-Pacific Security Initiative Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

East Asia Human Rights

Fellow

Stella Glojek

Air Force SkillBridge Fellow

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

East Asia Europe & Eurasia

Fellow

Naima Green-Riley

Nonresident Fellow

Digital Forensic Research Lab

China Disinformation

Millennium fellow

Marissa Guiang

COO for Emerging Markets & Asia Fundamental Equities, BlackRock

Millennium Leadership Program

East Asia Economy & Business

Fellow

Thayz Guimarães

Nonresident Fellow

Global China Hub

Americas Brazil
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