Global Asia - Summer 2017

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Revolutions take many forms, but those that begin with anger and frustration diffused across a population can appear slow in the making, if only because what is visibly broad does not always show itself as deep and powerful. So it must have felt on those chilly Saturday nights on Seoul’s streets last October, when people first gathered in protest. Outraged by growing evidence of corruption and abuse of authority by President Park Geun-hye, at first thousands, then tens and hundreds of thousands, and finally more than a million gathered in candlelight vigils calling for an end to her rule. Only as autumn turned to winter did the end come: Park was impeached, then in March was removed from office...
In our cover package, we examine the huge challenges that this People Power Revolution has laid before the feet of Moon and future South Korean leaders. To be sure, many have been a part of political debate for decades. But the stakes are higher now, and the public — freshly aware of its newfound power — is demanding accountability. The challenges include finally amending the constitution to end South Korea’s “imperial presidency;” reforming a system that affords chaebol, or family-owned business groups, control of much of the economy; expanding a welfare system that does too little to protect the needy; addressing widening income gaps and other social inequalities; adopting policies to help South Korea harness the Fourth Industrial Revolution, ushered in by growing use of AI and robotics; grappling with youth unemployment in a country also burdened by an aging population; and managing complex relations with China, the US and Japan, amid continuing provocations from North Korea.

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.