Middle power South Korea and Ukraine
When President Yoon visits Washington, nobody will ask what kind of middle power it is, but when they ask why South Korea is not doing more to assist Ukraine – they’ll basically be asking the same thing.
2023 04 18
Kazakhstan in the middle
Kazakhstan, a country too often unfairly treated as a punchline rather than a power, is treading a middle road – that of a middle power
2023 04 16
The South Korean nuclear threat
A South Korean decision to pursue nuclear weapons would substantially transform strategic outlooks across the region.
2023 04 11
Advice to a young North Korea watcher
After twenty-five years in government, academia and consultancy, with much of my time working on Korean Peninsula affairs, I’ve seen the best and worst North Korea Watchers.
2023 03 24
Future proof? South Korea’s Indo-Pacific strategy
Seoul’s Indo-Pacific Strategy has been broadly welcomed by a number of states, but making it future proof won’t be an easy task.
2023 01 08
The middle power’s last hurrah
The middle power term will still be used because it’s an easy label to throw about for politicians and journalists but academics should be held to a higher standard.
2022 11 27
Can South Korea be a nuclear middle power?
In the end, stopping South Korea from heading down the nuclear path requires less academic waffling, and more diplomacy.
2022 10 28
What to expect after a North Korean nuclear test
The Korean Peninsula is currently in a pattern of tit-for-tat provocation: short and long-range missile tests; combined training exercises; artillery live-fire exercises, and border area fighter jet sorties and would reach a new height with a nuclear test.
2022 10 24
South Korea’s nuclear debate
Twenty years ago, the United States had an opportunity to prevent North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, and in twenty years’ time, nobody should look back and say the United States once had an opportunity to prevent South Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
2022 10 18
Australia-Korea relations are about commerce, not strategy
There’s an oft-repeated anecdote that circulates amongst the more cynically minded foreign policy analysts in Seoul – if you understand how to sell washing machines, you understand South Korea’s foreign policy.
2022 08 21