East Asia

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

Coming Soon: the Un-Pivot to Asia

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

Coming Soon: the Un-Pivot to Asia

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

Coming Soon: the Un-Pivot to Asia

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 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

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
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Experts

Expert bio

MaryKay Carlson

Distinguished Fellow

Indo-Pacific Security Initiative Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Africa East Asia

Fellow

Josh M. Cartin

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Indo-Pacific Security Initiative Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

China Chinese

Fellow

Dakota Cary

Nonresident Fellow

Global China Hub

China Cybersecurity

Expert

Ji-Ting Chen

Visiting Fellow

Freedom and Prosperity Center

China Freedom and Prosperity

Millennium fellow

Newman Cheng

Senior Software Engineer, Microsoft

Millennium Leadership Program

Artificial Intelligence East Asia

Fellow

Sungmin Cho

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Indo-Pacific Security Initiative Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

China Defense Policy
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