Junotane

My name is Jeffrey Robertson, aka Junotane. On this site, I write on foreign policy, diplomacy and the Korean Peninsula.

As an advisory warning, it’s direct, no holds barred, cutting commentary from in-country. It may offend. There’s no government baloney, no corporate cream, and no thinktank spruiking. Just free-thinking insight - commentary, analysis and fiction.

From here you can head on over to read About Junotane, including subscriptions and contact details; or you can head straight to the Writing section where you will find Analysis, Commentary, and Fiction on the Korean Peninsula and the the region.

Thanks for visiting and remember: be thankful, be nice, and help people - life is short :)

When states start acting like businesses

The Trump Administration’s DOGE is a bull in the international relations China shop. It’s taken a wrecking ball to USAID, RFA, VOA, the Wilson Center and USIP - institutions of international relations that most of us grew up with and held to be inviolable.

2025 04 06

South Korea faces significant challenges after Yoon removal

Significance. The Constitutional Court's unanimous decision to remove President Yoon Suk-yeol from office on April 4, 2025, has elicited widespread public reactions, ranging from jubilant celebrations to vehement protests.

2025 04 04

Yoon’s impeachment verdict - another circus passing through Seoul

As South Korea prepares for the Constitutional Court’s verdict on President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment this Friday, an avalanche of special event podcasts and live-streams are well underway. Every dick and his dog man and his dog person and their dog has their own extra special angle gleaned from the hundreds of other commentary pieces piling up across the planet.

2025 04 02

The abrupt end to 75 years of U.S. policy on Korea

South Korea has long been shaped—directly and indirectly—by the intellectual legacy of America’s most influential international relations thinkers. Figures like Hans Morgenthau, Henry Kissinger, and Zbigniew Brzezinski cast long shadows over South Korea. It is through their works that decision-makers formed modern U.S. policy on South Korea.

2025 04 01

South Korea will accept China’s dominance in the region

Maybe it’s my 1990s Australian teenage years of wagging* school and watching corny American television repeats, but I often listen in on conversations between academic, political, and/or government colleagues and get bored, so I return to form and act as a tabloid talk show host. I become a foreign policy Jerry Springer, throwing out difficult topics, inciting anger, and provoking responses.

2025 03 20

Trump and South Korea’s political chaos

Donald Trump’s return to the White House has already reshaped U.S. foreign policy, and some commentators believe there will be no return to post-Cold War norms.

2025 03 19

South Korea to China and America: I choose not to choose

Middle powers do not have the capacity to shape changes in the strategic environment; rather, they react to them. What distinguishes them from smaller powers is their capacity to plan how to react in anticipation of change. If they’re lucky, reaction is planned in advance and they secure advantage.

2025 03 17

Australia in South Korea’s foreign policy circles

Spending time in Seoul’s epistemic community—among journalists, academics, and policymakers—I’m often struck by how rarely Australia is seen as an independent actor in international affairs. When discussing regional security, trade policy, or strategic alliances, Australia is routinely framed as an extension of the United States - often an annoying and arrogant extension.

2025 03 13

The unravelling of the U.S. alliance with South Korea

The Cold War often feels like the defining moment of modern geopolitics, the era where alliances were forged and the global order was set. But in the grand sweep of history, it is merely a brief interlude in the much longer story of regional dynamics shaped by geography.

2025 03 10

South Korea responds to U.S. tariffs

In his first speech to Congress of his second term, U.S. President Donald Trump turned very briefly to South Korea. Trump claimed that South Korea’s tariffs on U.S. goods are four times higher than those imposed by the United States.

2025 03 06