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

In Disputes Over Asian Seas, Winner May Take Zilch

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

In Disputes Over Asian Seas, Winner May Take Zilch

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

In Disputes Over Asian Seas, Winner May Take Zilch

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

Jan 15, 2013

In Disputes Over Asian Seas, Winner May Take Zilch

By Robert A. Manning

It may be Asia’s 21st century equivalent of the assassination of Austria’s Archduke Ferdinand that sparked World War I. Growing tensions over territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas threaten to disrupt the oft-heralded Asian Century. Whatever the outcome, many see more than just competing nationalisms, the scars of national memory and the […]

China Japan

New Atlanticist

Jan 2, 2013

Japan’s Coming Challenges: What Awaits Shinzo Abe

By Rajan Menon

Shinzo Abe became prime minister of Japan—its seventh in six years —after his Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed Japan for all but four years since 1955, won parliamentary elections resoundingly, ending a three-year interlude by the Democratic Party of Japan.

Economy & Business Japan

New Atlanticist

Dec 17, 2012

China’s Bad Diplomacy

By James Clad and Robert Manning

A joke now making the rounds in Asia asks, “who is America’s most effective diplomat in Asia?” The punch line brings knowing laughter: “‘Mr. Beijing.’ Yes, Mr. Bob Beijing is playing America’s best hand.”

China Maritime Security

NATOSource

Dec 6, 2012

NATO expresses ‘grave concern’ about North Korea’s intent to launch a ballistic missile

By NATO

From NATO:  The North Atlantic Council expresses its grave concern at North Korea’s declared intent to launch a rocket using ballistic missile technology this month. Such an act would be in direct violation of United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1718 and 1874.  It would risk exacerbating tensions in the region and further destabilising the Korean […]

Korea NATO

New Atlanticist

Nov 16, 2012

Behind Sino-Japanese Tensions

By Robert Manning

It just won’t go away—and it may be Asia’s contemporary equivalent to Archduke Ferdinand, whose assassination sparked World War I.

China Japan

New Atlanticist

Nov 15, 2012

Xi Jinping: China’s Gorbachev?

By Julian Lindley-French

Watching Xi Jinping being anointed as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party I could not help but recall that old Confucian saying, “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life”.

China

New Atlanticist

Nov 8, 2012

For the Future Leaders of United States and China, a World of Difference

By Philip Haxel

Two days after US voters head to the polls, the People’s Republic of China will select its next generation of leaders, albeit in a less democratic fashion.

China Elections

New Atlanticist

Oct 19, 2012

China Currency Obession: Shooting at Wrong Target

By Robert A. Manning

China bashing has long been a staple of US presidential campaigns. But even in silly season, it is difficult to explain the American, and particularly, Mitt Romney’s fixation with China’s currency, the RMB. He has repeatedly said that “on day one” of his presidency he will declare China a currency manipulator. There are indeed, big […]

China United States and Canada
Chinese oil rig in South China Sea

New Atlanticist

Sep 19, 2012

Deep-Water Oil Rigs as Strategic Weapons

By Martin N. Murphy

This, at least, is how Wang Yilin, Chairman of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), chooses to view them. He reportedly told an audience at CNOOC’s headquarters in Beijing in May that ‘large-scale deep-water rigs are our mobile national territory and a strategic weapon’.

China Energy & Environment

New Atlanticist

Sep 5, 2012

What Roosevelt Would Do in the South China Sea

By James Clad and Robert Manning

Planting flags on islets, declaring cities where there are too few residents to fill a restaurant, and huffing and puffing over uninhabited rocks are acts more suited to a Gilbert and Sullivan farce than to nations in the 21st century. Absurdities aside, the tensions in the South China Sea could shape the balance of power […]

China
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Experts

Fellow

Scott D. Berrier

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Indo-Pacific Security Initiative Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Afghanistan Defense Policy
Jessica Batke

Fellow

Jessica Batke

Nonresident Fellow

Digital Forensic Research Lab

China Civil Society

Staff

Charlotte Bertrand

Project Assistant

GeoStrategy Initiative Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

China Defense Industry

Millennium fellow

Nathan Bruschi

Chief Executive Officer, Anchorwork Inc.

Millennium Leadership Program

Civil Society East Asia

Fellow

Alvin Camba

Nonresident Fellow

Indo-Pacific Security Initiative Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

China Chinese

Fellow

Josh M. Cartin

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Indo-Pacific Security Initiative Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

China Chinese
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