Global Asia - March 2023

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From Our Cover: A Nuclear South Korea? Arguments, Risks and Ways Forward

The security debate in South Korea has been roiled by surprise remarks recently by the country’s president suggesting Seoul might consider going nuclear if its growing anxieties about the threat from North Korea aren’t adequately addressed. That is a prospect that has troubling implications for the region and the world.

Our In Focus section looks at two very different approaches to China, one arguing that engagement by the West is both possible and desirable, the other that Xi Jinping’s iron grip on power makes it unlikely that any change is possible.

Elsewhere, in our Features section, we explore how Myanmar has once again become a venue for a geopolitical contest, as Beijing embraces the military government in Naypyidaw in order to secure access to the Indian Ocean, while the West shuns and sanctions Myanmar. We also look at how the war in Ukraine is strengthening the relationship between Russia and North Korea; and at the implications of South Korean President Yoon’s “middle power” foreign policy aspirations and whether they are likely to lead anywhere.

Our Book Review section, as always, highlights notable recent works on Asia and includes a more ample selection of long reviews.

Global Asia Magazine Description:

Global Asia is a quarterly publication of the East Asia Foundation. The foundation, established in Seoul in January 2005, strives to promote peace, prosperity, security and sustainability in East Asia by creating an open and creative forum for the exchange of ideas on regional co-operation and integration, among other goals.
The mission we have set for ourselves with Global Asia is both bold and urgent: It is to provide a compelling, serious, and responsible forum for distinguished thinkers, policymakers, political leaders and business people to debate the most important issues in Asia today.
Global Asia is not a journal with a fixed point of view, or a particular agenda. Our aim is to give voice to the global dimension of what is happening in Asia. In our pages and on our web site, we aim for Asia to speak to the world, and the world to Asia. That is important at a time when this region is playing an ever greater role in world affairs.
There are other fine publications on international affairs. What sets us apart is our focus: Asia. We believe that the world is moving into “the Age of Asia,” to borrow a phrase from one of the articles in the inaugural issue of Global Asia in September 2006. This transformation is not going to occur overnight, but it has already begun.
The region’s dynamic economic growth, stable and accountable political systems, maturing democracies, and evolving sense of community are giving Asia greater weight in the world. These developments will have enormous implications for governments, businesses, societies and individuals across the globe. How that transformation is viewed, and shaped, from within Asia and how it is perceived outside Asia is an essential part of the story we have to tell.
The forces of globalization are having a profound impact throughout the world. And they are being influenced and channeled in different ways in different parts of the world. Ours is the story of Asia’s experience with globalization, and the ideas and debates influencing it. In pursuing our mission, we aim to play a part, however modest, in helping to shape the future of Asia.