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Emanuel Pastreich, visiting scholar at the Center for East Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania and a Japan Focus associate, writes, “The United States is losing its economic and cultural authority through the lethal mixture of ballooning trade deficits and torture scandals. The danger is that a classic military reflex will be one of the few tools left in the chest at a time when the U.S. needs a far more varied and sophisticated set of responses to negotiate successfully the path ahead.”

Read the discussion.

James Goodby, former U.S. ambassador to Finland and current Senior Fellow at the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at The Brookings Institution, and Markku Heiskanen, a senior Finnish diplomat, who is currently Associate Senior Fellow of the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, Copenhagen write, “Two inter-Korean railway corridors are now waiting for the first test trains to cross the demilitarized zone, for the first time in half a century. The EU supports the “Iron Silk Road”–the initiative of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung to connect the Korean peninsula to Europe through a Eurasian railway network.”

Read discussion of this essay by Aidan Foster-Cater.

Read discussion of this essay by Georgy Bulychev.

Discussion of "Linking Europe and Northeast Asia" Discussion of “Linking Europe and Northeast Asia” Policy Forum Online 06-17A: March 2nd, 2006 “Discussion of ‘Linking Europe and Northeast Asia’” by James Goodby and Markku Heiskanen CONTENTS I. Introduction II. Comments on “Linking Europe and Northeast Asia” by Aidan Foster-Carter III. Nautilus invites your responses I. Introduction […]

Discussion of "Linking Europe and Northeast Asia" Discussion of “Linking Europe and Northeast Asia” Policy Forum Online 06-17A: March 2nd, 2006 “Discussion of ‘Linking Europe and Northeast Asia’” by James Goodby and Markku Heiskanen CONTENTS I. Introduction II. Comments on “Linking Europe and Northeast Asia” by Georgy Bulychev III. Nautilus invites your responses I. Introduction […]

Thomas B. Cochran, Matthew G. McKinzie, Robert S. Norris, Laura S. Harrison, and Hans M. Kristensen, analyzing China’s nuclear forces in the publication Imaging Notes, write, “While President George W. Bush and President Hu Jintao spent their time in November discussing economic and regional issues, both of their military establishments were busy modernizing the nuclear forces. China is nowhere near nuclear parity with the United States, but both countries seem poised to modernize their nuclear forces with an eye to the other’s intentions and capabilities.”

Kim Myong Chol, author of a number of books and papers in Korean, Japanese and English on North Korea. He is executive director of the Center for Korean-American Peace, and is often called an “unofficial” spokesman of Kim Jong-il and North Korea, writes, “If the financial sanctions are intended to cut off North Korea’s income source to fund the nuclear-weapons development program, it is highly unlikely that the objective will be accomplished.”

Wonhyuk Lim, a CNAPS Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Fellow at the Korea Development Institute (KDI), and Korea National Strategy Institute (KNSI), writes, “the controversy over food aid to North Korea may be regarded as yet another example of this tendency to ignore changing realities and criticize engagement without producing a viable policy alternative. The end of the Cold War showed that even “an evil empire” was full of normal people and leaders who could bring about an enormous change when it was engaged with the outside world. Perhaps a return to what worked in the past may be a better policy than wishing for a regime change without any realistic strategy.”

Wonhyuk Lim, a CNAPS Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Fellow at the Korea Development Institute (KDI), and Korea National Strategy Institute (KNSI), writes, “After a decade of economic crisis, only the infusion of external capital would provide a substantive solution to the capital-labor coordination problem and put economic growth on a more stable trajectory… After his Southern Tour, Kim Jong Il should have a much better idea about how to develop an economic model suited to North Korea’s specific conditions.”

Gerry van Klinken, Australian historian and editor of Inside Indonesia, writes “The denial of East Timor’s right to self-determination – always acknowledged by the UN – was an international project, and it’s only fair the world should make amends. This is the ‘to do’ list: contribute the relevant archives to East Timor, cough up (from the profits of arms sales!) for victim compensation, table the CAVR report publicly (this one aimed at Indonesian school textbooks), and help prosecute all those responsible.”

Kim Tae Kyung, reporter at OhMyNews.com, writes “the expectation that the Chinese leadership would feel burdened by throwing money down the North Korean hole is fading when one considers that China has been the world’s sixth largest economy since last year. Moreover, in order to avoid throwing money “into a bottomless pit,” China is stressing — almost forcing — North Korea to reform and open up. Ultimately, the argument of U.S. neo-cons that China would abandon North Korea is becoming a dream or “fantasy” that can never come true.”