Global Asia - June 2018

In this issue

In our cover package, we examine how Northeast Asia’s major nations are grappling with challenges posed by Trump’s unorthodox approach to trade. China figures prominently, as it runs by far the largest trade surplus with the US. As predicted in these pages last year, Trump is proving a “transactional president,” seeking with Beijing to cobble together a package of concessions not aimed at adhering to any broad, multilateral framework, but rather to extract benefits that will hasten a narrowing of the US trade deficit. Beijing is thus faced with unwelcome pressure to address US concerns without appearing to surrender China’s growing influence on the debate about global rules and norms, including those involving trade.
Elsewhere in this issue, our Features section looks at the historic North Korea-South Korea summit in April and Trump-Kim summit in Singapore in June; why the argument that China presents a new, alternative authoritarian model for the world is a myth; what Malaysia needs to do, now that it has ousted the party that ruled it for 60 years; the challenges of regulating cryptocurrencies in Asia; the importance of Australia-South Korea relations; and what fiction-writing in North Korea reveals about Kim Jong Un and his rule.
Our In Focus section takes an in-depth look at the renewed role for Europe in Asian security in the face of the growing US -China rivalry for influence in the region. Europe’s relevance to security issues in Asia receded after the end of the Cold War, but new opportunities for European engagement are now emerging.
In addition, we feature an expanded book review section in this issue, focusing as always on some of the most engaging works on Asia.

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.