Global Asia - December 2018

In this issue

...The year opened with the world fearing a possible military conflict on the Korean Peninsula following months of heated rhetoric from US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. But as was quickly shown by the subsequent summits between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim, and between Trump and Kim, dialogue among leaders determined to change the course of events can have an impact on re-calibrating discourse, even when the thorniest differences remain. Only the future will tell where current efforts to address the many contentious issues on the Korean Peninsula will lead, but if they ultimately succeed — even several years hence — the high-level meetings that marked 2018 will be seen as historic examples of the power and promise of summit diplomacy.
In this issue of Global Asia, we take an in-depth look at the exercise of summit diplomacy in Asia, not just with regard to the Korean Peninsula, but also to the many issues that threaten stability in relations among China, Japan and South Korea, as well as the wider role of the United States in the region. We expand the remit of that inquiry in our In Focus section, examining the emergence in recent years of a variety of forums that are increasingly institutionalizing summit diplomacy in Asia — from the Shanghai Co-operation Organization to the Belt and Road Initiative to regional trade negotiations. This complex mosaic of summitry is vital in its own right as an opportunity for high-level dialogue, but also threatens to become a venue in which the regional rivalry between China and the US could play out.
The articles on summit diplomacy presented here have their origin in a conference held on Oct. 29, 2018, at the University of California, San Diego, sponsored by the School of Global Policy and Strategy, the Korea-Pacific Program and The Asia Research Fund...

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.