News
ANNOUNCEMENT
Summer Issue of Asian Perspective
We are pleased to announce the publication of
Asian Perspective, volume 50, number 3 (Summer 2026) published by Johns Hopkins University Press for the Institute for Far Eastern Studies of Kyungnam University and made available online at Project Muse (https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/57498).
In this issue, seven
regular submission articles cover aspects of China’s environment, East Asian security, and South Korean history and society. On the theme of China’s environment, the first article examines the PRC’s chemical industry, looking specifically at the country’s coal-based fertilizer production and use, and why this matters for understanding Beijing’s efforts to combat global climate change. The second examines the question of how China practises its activity in global environmental governance, particularly its engagement in biodiversity governance, and questions whether Beijing has been demonstrating a leadership or laggard role, inter alia, in this endeavour. Shifting to East Asian security, three articles tackle questions of alliance, alignment, and responses to grey zone tactics in the region. The first contribution asks whether the China-Russia-North Korea triangle represents an alignment or an axis, finding a lack of cohesion and formal military commitments in their arrangement, distrust between Beijing and Moscow and Beijing and Pyongyang, and a lag in their combined military capabilities compared to their main competitor, the US-South Korea-Japan trilateral partnership. The second contribution examines the limits that geography poses to Japan-ROK security alignment, finding that Seoul and Tokyo’s strategic cooperation is likely limited to an auxiliary role backing the United States. The third contribution employs a neoclassical realist perspective to explore Japan’s institutionalization of Maritime Domain Awareness as a non-military response to China’s gray zone tactics in the Indo-Pacific. The final two articles in the issue look at aspects of South Korean history and the situation of North Korean defectors within society. The first article contributes to studies on authoritarianism by conducting a comparative, individual level quantitative analysis on the elite volatility in the military dictatorships of Park Chung Hee and Chun Doo-hwan. The second—and final article of the issue—provides a thorough examination of the health status and economic assimilation of North Korean defectors in South Korean society.
The issue also features our regular ‘Book Symposium’, this time on Van Jackson and Michael Brenes’ excellent work,
The Rivalry Peril: How Great-Power Competition Threatens Peace and Weakens Democracy (Yale University Press, 2025).
All back issues of the journal (from 1977 to 2026), including past special issues, are also available at Project Muse (https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/733).
Past special issues/sections of Asian Perspective
Special Issue/Section Titles 2024~1999
Guest Editor (Initiator)
Issue & link
Special Session on China and the MEAN Region – Part 2
(Burak Gürel)
Vol. 50, No. 2, Spring 2026
Special Session on China and the MEAN Region – Part 1
(Burak Gürel)
Vol. 50, No. 1, Winter 2026
Special Issue on Southeast Asia–Middle East Relations – Part 2
(Gürol Baba and Yew Meng Lai)
Vol. 49, No. 4, Fall 2025
Special Issue on Southeast Asia–Middle East Relations – Part 1
(Gürol Baba and Yew Meng Lai)
Vol. 49, No. 3, Summer 2025
Special Issue on Great Power Competition in the Indo-Pacific and Eurasia – Part 2
Brian C. H. Fong
Vol. 49, No. 2, Spring 2025
Special Issue on Great Power Competition in the Indo-Pacific and Eurasia – Part 1
Brian C. H. Fong
Vol. 49, No. 1, Winter 2025
Special Session on China’s Rise in Asia: China-Host Country Interactions and Transformations
Alvin Camba, Guanie Lim, and Victoria Chonn Ching
Vol 48, No. 3, Summer 2024
Special Issue on Infrastructure Connectivity in Europe with Chinese Characteristics—Part 2
Niall Duggan and Anges Szunomar
Vol. 48, No. 2, Spring 2024
Special Issue on Infrastructure Connectivity in Europe with Chinese Characteristics—Part 1
Niall Duggan and Anges Szunomar
Vol. 48, No. 1, Winter 2024
Special Session on China’s Rise in Asia: China-Host Country Interactions and Transformations
Alvin Camba, Guanie Lim, and Victoria Chonn Ching
Vol. 47, No. 4, Fall 2023
Special Session on Russia-China Relations
Sergey Radchenko
Vol. 47, No. 3, Summer 2023
Special Issue on US-China Strategic Competition in the Indo-Pacific – Part 2
(Hyun Ji Rim)
Vol. 47, No. 2, Spring 2023
Special Issue on US-China Strategic Competition in the Indo-Pacific – Part 1
(Hyun Ji Rim)
Vol. 47, No. 1, Winter 2023
Competing Powers & Southeast Asian Energy Futures: Infrastructure, Investment, and Development
(Jessica Liao)
Vol. 46, No. 1, Winter 2022
Southeast Asian Responses to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (Part II)
Cheng-Chwee Kuik
Vol. 45, No. 4, Spring 2021
Regional Communicative Dynamics and International Relations in the Asia-Pacific
(Chiyuki Aoi and Yee-Kuang Heng)
Vol. 45, No. 3, Summer 2021
Southeast Asian Responses to China’s Belt and Road Initiative
Cheng-Chwee Kuik
Vol. 45, No. 2, Spring 2021
US-China Relations in Crisis
(Carla P. Freeman and Mel Gurtov)
Vol. 45, No. 1, Winter 2021
The Cold War and Decolonization in East Asia
Chih-Yu Shih, Tze-Ki Hon, and Hok Yin Chan
Vol. 44. No. 2, Spring 2020
Power, Narratives, and the Role of Third Parties: Understanding Power (Shift) in East Asia
Mikael Weissmann and Mingjiang Li
Vol. 43, No. 2, Spring 2019
China’s Relations with Its Neighbors: Historical Perspectives on Contemporary Issues
Yafeng Xia
Vol. 42, No. 4, Oct.–Dec. 2018
Russia in the Asia Pacific
(Gaye Christoffersen)
Vol. 42, No. 3, July–Sept. 2018
New Developments in Chinese Foreign Policy
(Gregory J. Moore)
Vol. 42, No. 2, Apr.–June 2018
South Korea’s Rise in Comparative Perspective
Michael A. Morris and Xiaobo Hu
Vol. 41, No. 1, Jan.–Mar. 2017
The Political Economy of China-Latin America Investment Relations
Jean-Marc F. Blanchard
Vol. 40, No. 4, Oct.-Dec. 2016
The Tumen River Triangle as the Borderland of Northeast Asia
Hyun-Gwi Park
Vol. 40, No. 3, July–Sept. 2016
Nuclear Power in East Asia
Tilman Ruff
Vol. 39, No. 4, Oct.–Dec. 2015
The Abe Effect in Regional International Order: Japan and Asia
Yul Sohn
Vol. 39, No. 3, July–Sept. 2015
The Impact of Post-2014 Afghanistan on Asian Regional Security
Nadine Godehardt and Nicola Nymalm
Vol. 38, No. 4, Oct.–Dec. 2014
The East Asia Power Shift: A Critical Appraisal
Linus Hagstrom and Bjorn Jerden
Vol. 38, No. 3, July–Sept. 2014
The Sino-Japanese Dispute over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands: Dangers and Opportunities
Gregory J. Moore
Vol. 38, No. 2, Apr.–June, 2014
After Fukushima: The Right to Know
Norifumi Namatame
Vol. 37, No. 4, Oct.–Dec. 2013
China and Soft Power
Jean-Marc F. Blanchard and Fujia Lu
Vol. 36, No. 4, Oct.–Dec. 2012
South Korea–China Relations: Growing Interdependence, Rising Uncertaintie
Jae Ho Chung
Vol. 36, No. 2, Apr.–June 2012
Avoiding an Arms Race in Space
Peter Van Ness
Vol. 35, No. 4, Oct.–Dec. 2011
Seeking Political Reconciliation: Case Studies in Asia
Mumin Chen
Vol. 34, No. 4, 2010
North Korea’s Nuclear Politics
Donald C. Hellmann
Vol. 34, No. 1, 2010
North Korea and Regional Security
Mark J. Valencia
Vol. 32, No. 4, 2008
The BRICs Countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) in the Global System
Leslie Elliott Armijo
Vol. 31, No.4, 2007
Reconciliation between China and Japan
Peter Van Ness
Vol. 31, No. 1, 2007
Rising China’s Foreign Relations
Jean-Pierre Cabestan
Vol. 30, No. 4, 2006
Interests, Institutions, and Contentions in China
Dali Yang
Vol. 29, No. 4, 2005
Controversial Issues in Japanese Politics and Society
Gil Latz
Vol. 29, No. 1, 2005
Globalization and SARS in Chinese Societies
Alvin Y. So and Ngai Pun
Vol. 28, No. 1, 2004
The Energy Crisis and Renewable Energy Development in North Korea
Timothy Savage
Vol. 26, No. 1, 2002
Economic Reforms and Social Change in Contemporary China
Alvin Y. So
Vol. 25, No. 4, 2001
Prospects for New Inter-Korean Relations
Vol. 25, No. 2, 2001
Commemoration of the 25ᵗʰ Anniversary of Asian Perspective
Vol. 25, No. 1, 2001
Dysfunctional Japan: At Home and In the World
Chalmers Johnson
Vol. 24, No. 4, 2000
Dynamics of Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula
Vol. 23, No. 2, 1999
