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

Dealing with the North Korean Threats

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

Dealing with the North Korean Threats

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

Dealing with the North Korean Threats

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

Apr 10, 2013

Dealing with the North Korean Threats

By Harlan Ullman

More than a century ago, as this column noted, events in Europe were simultaneously described as serious but not yet desperate and as desperate but not fully serious. Given the antics of the Boy Sun King in Pyongyang, Kim Jung Un, it is hard to know how serious or desperate the current situation on the […]

China Korea

New Atlanticist

Apr 9, 2013

North Korea: Sad, Bad, and Mad?

By Julian Lindley-French

In 2000 Cranfield University’s Professor Helen Smith posed the now seminal question about North Korea, “Bad, Mad, Sad, or Rational Actor?” Kim Jong-un, the thirtyish leader of the somewhat misnomered Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) would indeed seem on the face of it to be bad, mad, and sad.

Korea

New Atlanticist

Apr 4, 2013

India’s Tough Road to the Security Council

By Rajan Menon

Something President Obama said in his speech to India’s parliament in 2010 gladdened lots of Indian hearts.

China Economy & Business

New Atlanticist

Apr 2, 2013

Why Less Is More on the Korean Peninsula

By Rajan Menon

On February 12, North Korea conducted its third nuclear weapons test. The UN tightened existing economic sanctions in response. Since then, the Korean peninsula has become an even more dangerous place than usual. Now that’s saying a lot. There’s no place on earth that, per square mile, contains more soldiers and armaments.

East Asia National Security

New Atlanticist

Apr 1, 2013

Methane Hydrates: A Second Gas Revolution?

By Robert Manning

Speculation is rampant that a new gas cornucopia is coming. After a successful Japanese experiment to extract natural gas from methane hydrates 1,000 meters below the surface and 50 miles off its shores, some are beginning to wonder if the “shale revolution” was just the beginning. But don’t hold your breath. There is no question […]

Energy & Environment Japan

New Atlanticist

Apr 1, 2013

Confronting What We Don’t Know About the Korean Crisis

By Rajan Menon

War cries, threats and counter-threats, moves and counter-moves are emanating from the Korean peninsula. Pundits have pronounced on what’s going on and where things are headed. So this may be a good time to engage in some humility and to reflect on how little we know.

Korea

New Atlanticist

Mar 29, 2013

Building BRICS

By Julian Lindley-French

They represent 25.9 percent of the world’s land mass, 43 percent of the population and 17 percent of global trade. The UN Development Program states that by “2020, the combined economic output of three leading developing countries alone Brazil, China, and India–will surpass the aggregate production of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and the United States.”

Brazil China
Xi Jinping in Russia

New Atlanticist

Mar 25, 2013

Xi’s Kissinger Move

By Julian Lindley-French

At the start of his historic visit to Russia last week newly-installed Chinese President Xi Jingping said that the “two countries spoke a common language.”  If America sees itself as the indispensable global pivot China clearly has the ambition to become the other global pivot in a new bipolar order.

China

New Atlanticist

Mar 25, 2013

What Xi Sees in Africa

By Peter Pham

Just days after completing his ascent by adding the state presidency to his posts as Communist Party general secretary and Central Military Commission chairman, Xi Jinping has embarked on his first trip overseas as China’s top leader, a journey that includes a week in Africa, with stops in Tanzania, South Africa, and the Republic of […]

Africa China

New Atlanticist

Mar 22, 2013

Russo-Chinese Energy Relations: Never-ending Foreplay?

By David Koranyi

As the officially anointed Chinese President Xi Jinping is on his first state visit abroad to Moscow, speculations are abound about a long-awaited breakthrough in energy relations between the two giants. Caution, however is warranted. The honeymoon in Russo-Chinese energy relations has been elusive and progress rather slow and uneven in the past years. China’s […]

China Energy & Environment
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Experts

Staff

Philippe Dickinson

Deputy Director

Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security Transatlantic Security Initiative

Chinese East Asia

Board director

Ambassador Paula J. Dobriansky

Vice Chair, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Latin America China

Fellow

Hanna Dohmen

Nonresident Fellow

Global China Hub

China Chinese
Jenny Domino

Fellow

Jenny Domino

Nonresident Fellow

Digital Forensic Research Lab

Digital Policy East Asia

Fellow

Nicholas Eftimiades

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

China Intelligence

Fellow

Zoltán Fehér

Nonresident Fellow

Global China Hub

Central Europe China
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