East Asia Hotspots East Asia National Resource Center

South Korea, like other democracies worldwide, is facing a variety of internal and external threats to democratic processes and values, from growing illiberalism to seemingly intractable political polarization. South Korea's recent presidential election was particularly divisive, with Mr. Suk-yeol Yoon winning the election by less than 1%. To explore the topic of "democratic decay" and its implications for South Korea, we speak with Dr. Gi-Wook Shin, the William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea and founding director of the Korea Program at Stanford University.
 
Gi-Wook Shin is the director of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center; the William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea; the founding director of the Korea Program, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in May; a senior fellow of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; and a professor of sociology, all at Stanford University. As a historical-comparative and political sociologist, his research has concentrated on social movements, nationalism, development, and international relations. Dr. Shin is the author/editor of more than twenty books and numerous articles. His recent books include The North Korean Conundrum: Balancing Human Rights and Nuclear Security (2021) and Demographics and Innovation in the Asia-Pacific (2021). He has a forthcoming book, edited with Ho-Ki Kim, on South Korea’s Democracy in Crisis: The Threats of Illiberalism, Populism, and Polarization. Dr. Shin is now working on a new research initiative seeking to examine potential benefits of talent flows in the Asia-Pacific region, where countries, cities, and corporations have competed with one another to enhance their stock of "brain power" by drawing on the skills of both their own citizens and those of foreigners.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 has been met by a variety of coordinated economic, diplomatic, and security responses by NATO and U.S. allies and partners worldwide, including Taiwan. The crisis has also sparked debate about the future of China-Taiwan relations and the United States’ role in a potential cross-Strait conflict. To unpack the implications of the Ukraine crisis for China, Taiwan, and the United States, we talk with Dr. Robert Sutter, Professor of Practice of International Affairs at The George Washington University.
 
Robert Sutter is Professor of Practice of International Affairs at the Elliott School of George Washington University (2011-Present). He also served as Director of the School’s main undergraduate program involving over 2,000 students from 2013-2019. His earlier full-time position was Visiting Professor of Asian Studies at Georgetown University (2001-2011). A Ph.D. graduate in History and East Asian Languages from Harvard University, Sutter has published 22 books (four with multiple editions), over 300 articles and several hundred government reports dealing with contemporary East Asian and Pacific countries and their relations with the United States. His forthcoming book is US-China Relations Perilous Past, Uncertain Present, Fourth Edition (Rowman& Littlefield, 2022). Sutter’s government career (1968-2001) saw service as senior specialist and director of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division of the Congressional Research Service, the National Intelligence Officer for East Asia and the Pacific at the US Government’s National Intelligence Council, the China division director at the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research and professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Despite holding a disproportionately small number of seats in the National People's Congress of China, female legislators are comparatively more productive than male counterparts in sponsoring legislative bills and building coalitions. To explore the topic of female participation in Chinese politics, we talk with Dr. Yue Hou, the Janice and Julian Bers Assistant Professor in the Social Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, on her forthcoming co-authored article, “Underrepresented Outperformers: Female Legislators in the Chinese Congress."

US-China-Taiwan triangular relations represent a particularly complicated set of historical and policy issues, and endure as critical dynamic in East Asia today. To unpack this set of relations and explore the future of US-China-Taiwan ties, we talk with Dr. Hung-jen Wang, Associate Professor of Political Science and current NRC scholar.

In this episode, we speak with Dr. June Park - NRC East Asia Voices Initiative Fellow and political economist specializing in trade, energy, and tech - about South Korea’s governance tools in managing the COVID-19 pandemic, lessons learned from crisis management in the past, and how COVID-19 is influencing global technology trends.

In this episode, Sigur Center non-resident scholar Julia Lau talks about how governments in Southeast Asia have responded to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Julia covers how the pandemic intersects with politics, tourism and business, gender and race, and health and security affairs.