By Barbara Slavin While the Trump administration has focused on perceived threats from Muslim and Latin American immigrants, a more serious challenge for United States policymakers is North Korea’s advancing missile and nuclear programs. On February 12, the North Koreans fired what experts said was an intermediate-range ballistic missile known as the Musudan. It flew […]
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Japan’s Shinzo Abe First to Call on Donald Trump
Donald Trump’s first meeting as president-elect with a head of state will be closely scrutinized for both style and substance.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took the initiative to be the first to meet with Trump for practical reasons. During the election campaign, Trump criticized Japan for its trade practices and for how much it was paying the U.S. for its defense. Abe wants to understand the level of Trump’s commitment to defend Japan. He wants to, in his words, “build trust” with incoming U.S. president and highlight the importance of strong relations between the countries.
Trump needs to get used to seeing Abe. New rules will allow Abe to run for a third term, which means he will likely lead Japan throughout Trump’s first term. How the two leaders get along will speak volumes about how Trump deals with fellow world leaders — and how they might deal with him.
The Coming Clash with China over North Korea
Top Clinton foreign policy advisers have been open about their intention to apply to North Korea a version of the playbook the Obama administration used with Iran….drastically increase sanctions on Pyongyang…considering secondary sanctions on foreign firms…punishing Chinese companies keeping Kim’s nuclear and missile industries afloat.
Diplomacy’s Aversion to Power: Consequences of Retreat
In practice, aversion to the use of power undercuts the effectiveness of diplomacy. It has been said that power without diplomacy is blind, but it is equally true that diplomacy not backed by power is impotent.
Duterte’s Flip-Flop into Bed with China Is a Disaster for the United States
The Philippines has seen a vertigo-inducing change in its foreign-policy orientation since Rodrigo Duterte became president this summer. This crude populist is now transforming the Philippines’ relationship with the United States in a fundamental and worrying manner.
The Philippines Is About to Give Up the South China Sea to China
Were Aquino’s anointed successor Mar Roxas currently president of the Philippines, it’s likely the nation would now be rallying international diplomatic pressure against China…Instead Duterte, after years of the Philippines building its legal argument and winning, appears set to essentially reverse course and give China Scarborough Shoal after all.
Who Will Remember My Father, Gui Minhai?
It’s a strange thing to mourn someone who has disappeared. You talk about the person and catch yourself saying that he was, instead of he is….You send email upon email just to say hi but never receive a response….But really, mourning is neither enough, nor allowed, when the Chinese state decides to have a person disappear.
Preparing for North Korea’s Inevitable Collapse
Crimes against humanity generally cost a regime its legitimacy, if not its sovereignty. And yet most national security professionals would regard the collapse of the North Korean slave state as a calamity. The reason for this is simple: all the nuclear weapons and material.
The Coming Confrontation with North Korea
Absent a major intervention, it is only a matter of time before North Korea increases its nuclear arsenal (now estimated at 8-12 devices) and figures out how to miniaturize its weapons for delivery by missiles of increasing range and accuracy.
Can North Korea’s Nuclear Ambitions Be Contained?
North Korea’s test of a nuclear bomb last week is again testing the resolve of the United States and the rest of the world.
Despite economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations (approved by China and Russia) in for its nuclear test in January, North Korea has doubled down since then, conducting 20 missile tests and last week’s nuclear test. And it says it now has the capability to mount a nuclear bomb on one of those missiles.
President Barack Obama condemned North Korea’s action and dispatched U.S. bombers to fly over South Korea, near the Demilitarized Zone as a show of force. But White House statements military maneuvers and calls for China to exercise its influence on Pyongyang have been tried before, to no avail.
What more can Obama — and his successor — do to stop what so far has been unstoppable?