ASIAN PERSPECTIVE

Current Issue

Vol. 50, No. 3 SUMMER 2026

China – Environment

China as a Coal-based Fertilizers Superpower: Domestic Drivers and Global Climate Impacts

Margarita M. Balmaceda

China’s Role in Global Biodiversity Governance

G. Kristin Rosendal, Gørild M. Heggelund, Jon Birger Skjærseth, and Steinar Andresen

East Asian Security

The China–Russia–North Korea Triangle: Alignment or Axis?

Sung-han Kim and James E. Platte

Toward a Formal Alliance? Geography and the Limits of Japan–South Korea Security Alignment

Dong Jung Kim

Toward a Comprehensive Management of the Maritime Domain: A Case Study of Japan’s MDA

Seunghyun Kim

South Korea

Elite Volatility in Two Different Types of Military Dictatorship: An Individual Level Quantitative Analysis of South Korean Elite (1961–1988)

Taekbin Kim and John Ishiyama

Health Status and Economic Assimilation of North Korean Defectors in South Korea

Jongmin Lee, Seungho Jung, and Hyeseung Wee

BOOK SYMPOSIUM

Book Symposium on Van Jackson and Michael Brenes. 2025. The Rivalry Peril: How Great-Power Competition Threatens Peace and Weakens Democracy. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Rory Truex

Feng Zhang

Van Jackson and Michael Brenes

The current issue of the journal can be found at https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/57498

FORTHCOMING ISSUE

Vol. 50, No. 4 FALL 2026

Special Session on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) at 10

CPEC at Ten: An Analysis of Regional Power Politics and Security

Raj Verma and Shahid Ali

The CPEC and the US-Pakistan-China Triad

Zahid Shahab Ahmed

The CPEC and Increasing China-Pakistan Collusion: A Threat to India’s National Security

Raj Verma

The CPEC and China-Pakistan Counterterrorism Dilemma

Shahid Ali and Muhammad Faisal

The CPEC in Afghanistan: A Solution to China’s Non-Traditional Security Threats?

Fu Yuhong

China-Iran Relations and Regional Geopolitics in the Context of CPEC

Mohsen Solhdoost

The China–Pakistan Economic Corridor and Russia: Implications for Regional Security

Agnieszka Nitza-Makowska

South Korean Politics

Alliance Lobbying: Historical Implications to the Change of Korean Lobbying to Washington DC from 1970s to the Present

SeungHwan Kim

North Korean Leadership

Personality and Aggressive State Behavior: Kim Jong-un’s Strategies to Maintain His Regime’s Stability and Security

Shin Yon Kim

Current and back issues of the journal can be found at https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/733

China as a Coal-based Fertilizers Superpower: Domestic Drivers and Global Climate Impacts

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The production and use of inorganic fertilizers is an important but often overlooked source of CO2 emissions, and an important contributor to climate change. New estimates put emissions from the worldwide production and use of nitrogen (N) fertilizers, the most widely used inorganic fertilizer type, at c. 2.1 percent of global emissions in CO2e (Menegat, Ledo, and Tirado 2022). With agricultural demand set to increase nearly 50 percent by 2050 (Food and Agriculture Organization 2018), without a clear change in trajectory, CO2 emissions from N fertilizer production will continue to grow in a manner incompatible with the 1.5–2°C temperature increase limit goals (Tian et al. 2020). One important driver is the rapid ... Read More

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This study forms part of a project that examines the question of how China practises its recently enhanced influence in global environmental governance (GEG) of the issue-areas of biodiversity, climate change, chemicals, and marine plastic pollutants. Here we present the study of biodiversity governance, zooming in on how China performed its role as host of the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) which took place at the end of 2022.As a major contributor to all these global environmental problems, China is also central to solving them. China’s actions, therefore, have important implications for the effectiveness of GEG, including in the biodiversity issue area. ... Read More

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The tectonic shifts in the liberal international order, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, have been intensifying as they passed through the Eurasian continent. In this process, the strategic alignment between Russia and China has emerged as a key factor influencing the direction of the liberal international order. North Korea is also aligning with China and Russia in challenging the existing international order. This is reminiscent of the Axis powers just before World War II (WWII).In this vein, through historical comparison to the Axis powers of Germany, Japan, and Italy, this paper examines relations between China, Russia, and North Korea and looks at how their relations ... Read More

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Expectations remain high for profound improvements in japan-south Korea security relations. Despite domestic political uncertainty and challenges, Japanese leaders and most major political groups in South Korea recognize the need to strengthen bilateral security cooperation amid a deteriorating strategic environment (Japan Times 2025; Kyodo News 2025). As the second Donald Trump administration attempts to reorganize or diminish US overseas military commitments, the two Northeast Asian states have more incentives to collaborate to confront regional threats and constrain US security policy (Taylor 2025; Watanabe 2025). If Japan and South Korea succeed in continuing this momentum and achieve stronger security ... Read More

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China’s growing maritime assertiveness—marked by territorial disputes and resource competition—has become central to Japan’s security concerns. China’s gray zone tactics, involving non-military methods that incrementally alter the status quo, have exposed vulnerabilities in the US-Japan security alliance. As noted by Takei (2020, 22–24), China’s gray zone tactics exploit operational and legal gaps. Consequently, these challenges to Japan’s sovereignty, often involving fishing boats or coast guard vessels, are difficult to address with conventional defense structures. A key countermeasure to these threats is Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA), defined as the effective understanding of maritime activities impacting ... Read More

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Despite the commonly made argument in the literature that military regimes are relatively short-lived compared to other types of autocracies, some of these regimes are remarkably persistent (as evidenced by the restoration of a military regime in Myanmar). In part, the persistence of such regimes depends (as with other types of regimes) on how the leaders respond to challenges from other inner circle elites. Given that the main cause of leadership replacement is a coup by regime elites against the current dictator (Goemans, Gleditsch, and Chiozza 2009; Svolik 2012), elite management is a key factor that determines the survival of dictators, including military ones. Many studies have confirmed that military regimes ... Read More

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As of May 2023, 30,866 North Korean defectors resided in South korea1 (Korea Hana Foundation 2023). While this figure may seem small, the economic adjustment of these individuals has garnered significant attention from policymakers and scholars because of its implications for the reunification and economic integration of the two Koreas. Despite an array of governmental and private support programs aimed at facilitating their stabilization, the economic adjustment of North Korean defectors remains notably weaker than the general South Korean population. For instance, in 2023, the unemployment rate among North Korean defectors was 4.5 percent, which surpasses the general population’s rate of 2.7 percent. In ... Read More

Book Symposium

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This past summer, I had the opportunity to interview Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s former Minister of Digital Affairs, a polymath of sorts, known for her personal commitment to “radical transparency.”1 At the end of the conversation, I asked Audrey a simple question—how can the United States best support Taiwan? I had asked this question many times that week in Taipei, and finding an answer, or at least the beginnings of an answer, was the underlying reason for my trip.Audrey’s response was unusual:The only way Beijing can take Taiwan without firing a shot is by convincing the world that democracy never delivers and only leads to chaos— the authoritarian narrative. In 2014 some in Taiwan flirted with that; not anymore. But ... Read More