Seoul’s submarine scenarios
South Korea is currently in final negotiations with the United States on a deal that could reshape the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific: the construction of nuclear-powered submarines. What began as a diplomatic coup — Washington’s agreement in principle to support Seoul’s acquisition — has become bogged down in one deceptively simple question: where will they be built?
2025 11 11
Zombie multilateralism: The undead world of APEC
After 20 years, APEC returned to Korea, but it feels different. Leaders arrived in Gyeongju for the first Korean-hosted summit since Busan 2005, but the optimism that defined APEC twenty years ago has vanished. The hallways are full, the cameras are flashing, yet something vital has gone missing.
2025 10 30
A tale of two trilaterals with Seoul sitting in the center
Asia’s future will be scripted with the fate of two trilaterals — and South Korea sits at the center of both. The first is the U.S.–Korea–Japan partnership (USKJ), the most explicit security alignment in East Asia. The second is the China–Korea–Japan (CKJ) partnership, a quieter but increasingly consequential alignment built on trade, supply chains, and monetary coordination.
2025 10 30
South Korea, Canada, and a middle-power submarine: Can Australia Join?
South Korea’s bid for Canada’s submarine project raises a provocative question for Australia: if Canada and Korea can build a modern, sovereign, conventional submarine fleet together, why can’t we get in on it too?
2025 10 27
A circus and a summit: Trump and Xi visit Lee
It’s now in all the media. Lee Jae-myung will meet Donald Trump and Xi Jinping next week. Both are billed as state visits; only one will function as one. The first will be a circus, the second will be a summit. The difference could not be starker.
2025 10 25
APEC: The curdled yogurt of middle power diplomacy
APEC was the fruit yogurt of multilateralism. An unnatural panoply of fruits from across the region — summits, declarations, handshakes and hesitatingly hilarious national costume photo shoots.
2025 10 23
Ukraine’s present and Seoul’s future?
There is an inevitable fate that portends all small-to-mid-sized states adjacent to great powers—particularly those that (a) hold territory considered to be strategically relevant; (b) are heavily influenced by or controlled by a perceived opponent to the adjacent state; and (c) are heavily influenced by or controlled by a state in relative decline.
2025 10 16
Come to Seoul for the World Knowledge Forum!
George W. Bush, Nicolas Sarkozy, Therea May, Bill Gates, John Hennessy, Larry Ellison, and George Soros - virtually every target of an Alex Jones conspiracy alert - has spoken there. And this year, it was Justin Trudeau’s turn.
2025 10 13
South Korea has missed the alternative media train
U.S. alternative media is awash with stories on Israel and Gaza, Ukraine and Russia, and now Iran and Venezuela. There’s influence operations, assassinations, drug imports, illegal killings, imminent nuclear war, and the collapse of NATO, the E.U., the U.N, and even the U.S. But where’s the Korean Peninsula?
2025 10 11
A U.S. rationale for ending the alliance?
The rationale for withdrawal is no longer political fatigue or alliance friction, but geography, vulnerability, strategic cost, and maritime logic — a recognition that the defense of Korea has again become an expensive deviation from America’s natural strategic posture.
2025 10 09