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My Op-Ed for the Korea Times on US-North Korea Relations: in short, They’re...
That picture would be me and the “Great Chosun Leader, Comrade Kim Il Sung” (“위대한 조선 수령 김일성 동지,” as they told us to call him) in the Pyongyang subway. You’ll notice that the gold stature is nicer than...
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My Lowy Post: Relax, Korea is not ‘finlandizing’ for China
This is the first of two part series (one, two) I wrote for the Lowy Institute last month. I have the feeling that the centenary of WWI this summer has gone to everyone’s head, because I’m reading...
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My Lowy Post: Relax (again), Japan is Not ‘Re-Militarizing’
If there is any one trope in Korean and Chinese international relations writing I don’t like, it is the causal, constant, angry insistence on reading Japan as always ‘remilitarizing.’ In just about...
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My August Diplomat Essay: Can China Legitimate its Would-Be Hegemony?
This is a re-up of an essay I wrote at the Diplomat a few weeks ago. Basically, I ask if China can find a way to pull its neighbors into a cooperative project in east Asia, or if Chinese hegemony is...
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My Lowy Debate on whether US should Retrench from South Korea, part 1: Yes
This is a re-up of a debate couplet on the US position in South Korea, which I wrote for the Lowy Institute. Part one, the reasons for US retrenchment, is here (and below); part 2, the arguments...
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My Lowy Debate on whether the US should Retrench from South Korea, part 2: No
This is a re-up of the second part of a couplet I wrote for the Lowy Institute on whether the US should retrench from South Korea. Part one is here; the original Lowy version of part 2 is here. And...
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My September Diplomat Essay: “After Six Years, Is there an Obama Doctrine?...
This is a re-post of a piece I just published at The Diplomat this week. And that picture is Clausewitz. I attended a strategy training seminar this past summer at Columbia (apply for it if you’re in...
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My October Diplomat Essay: Russia between Empire and Modernity
This is a re-up of an essay I just wrote for the Diplomat (posted here). And that image to the left comes from this famous (notorious, really) tweet. If that doesn’t capture the values clash between...
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My Submission on Dodko to the University of Nottingham’s Blog Symposium on...
The China Policy Institute of the University of Nottingham in Britain is running a blog symposium – cool idea! – this week on Asia’s territorial disputes. Here is the series page, and here is my...
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My H-Net Book Review of Acharya’s ‘The End of the American World Order’
If you don’t know H-Net, you probably should. It is a great way to keep up to date with what is being read and discussed in the humanities and social sciences. They seem to offer mostly book reviews...
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My National Interest Essay on the Ridiculous Media Hysteria over Kim Jong...
Admit it, you miss the wild speculation about Kim Jong Un’s disappearance last month. It was lunatic fun, right? Was he dead? Was his sister in charge? WAS HE REPLACED BY ALIENS?!! Run for the hills!...
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My November Diplomat Essay: If We can’t Stop Fighting in the Middle East,...
You think that guy to the left cares about China or ASEAN? Gimme a break. This is a point I have made again and again on this blog: Asia does not activate the racial/cultural/religious paranoias of...
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My Lowy Essay: “OPCON Reversion is Dead – the 10-Year Soap Opera is Finally...
This is a reprint of an essay first published by the Lowy Institute a week ago. The reversion of OPCON – operational wartime control of the South Korean military – to South Korea is finally over....
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My 2014 Hate-Mail of the Year: ‘Kelly, You’re Wrong; North Korea’s Awesome!’
For my 2013 hate-mail of the year award, go here. So I get a lot of weird email and comments because of my blog, or in the comment sections of my op-eds for the Diplomat. A lot of it is fairly...
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My Lowy Essay on the Paranoid Anti-Americanism of South Korean Geopolitical Film
Take that English Teacher with Bad Hair! So I watch way too many movies when I should be working, probably because I am pretty lazy. But a side benefit is noticing the various tropes and themes of...
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The “Interview” Fits a Long Tradition of Really Stupid US Portrayals of North...
If you are looking to watch The Interview immediately, you can buy it on YouTube here. But the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes have been weak so far. I am not quite sure what to make of all the hacking...
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My Top 5 List for 2014: 5 Biggest Foreign Policy Events for the US in Asia
I love these hoky, end-of-the-year lists. But I don’t know much about genuinely interesting or cool stuff, like the top 5 classical music pieces or architectural masterpieces of the year. So before...
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My Top 5 List for 2104: 5 Biggest Foreign Policy Events in Korea
This is a follow-up to my previous post – a top 5 list of events for US power in Asia in 2014. South Korea had a good year. President Park’s cozying up to Beijing is starting to pay off. China-North...
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Looking Back on What Predictions for East Asia 2014 I got Wrong…and a little...
I have always liked these end of the year prediction check-ups, and new year prediction-making exercises. It’s fun, but it also is an important check on irresponsibility in our punditry. Month after...
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Northeast Asia 2015 Predictions: Another Year of the Repetitive, Uninspiring...
This is another of my end of year prediction/look-back posts. The others, on 2014, are here and here. This time I want to look forward to 2015, and I’ve got to admit that I see little that inspires...
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