In this issue

Although long in the planning, the cover package of this issue of Global Asia on the need for closer trilateral relations among the US, Japan and South Korea could not have come at a more auspicious time. As we went to press, the Constitutional Court in Seoul upheld the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, a historic ruling that removed her from office and set the stage for elections on May 9 that could bring a liberal president back to the Blue House for the first time since 2008. The fledgling administration of US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has generated unprecedented uncertainty in foreign policymaking circles worldwide, forcing allies and enemies alike to parse social media and personnel appointments for any clue as to the likely direction of US foreign policy in the four years ahead. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, no doubt aware of the stakes, was the first leader to meet Trump after both his election and inauguration, signaling how important the relationship with Washington is to Tokyo’s place in Asia and the world.
Against this backdrop of uncertainty in South Korea and the US, North Korea continues its provocative missile tests and has been implicated in the brazen assassination of Kim Jong Un’s half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, in Kuala Lumpur in a murder involving the nerve agent VX, classified by the UN as a weapon of mass destruction. China, meanwhile, has halted North Korean coal imports to ramp up pressure on Pyongyang, a move welcomed by Washington, but Beijing too is uncertain and wary of US policy, and has been angered by the first steps the US has taken to deploy the THAAD missile defense system in South Korea.

Global Asia Magazine Description:

Global Asia is a quarterly publication of the East Asia Foundation. The foundation, established in Seoul in January 2005, strives to promote peace, prosperity, security and sustainability in East Asia by creating an open and creative forum for the exchange of ideas on regional co-operation and integration, among other goals.
The mission we have set for ourselves with Global Asia is both bold and urgent: It is to provide a compelling, serious, and responsible forum for distinguished thinkers, policymakers, political leaders and business people to debate the most important issues in Asia today.
Global Asia is not a journal with a fixed point of view, or a particular agenda. Our aim is to give voice to the global dimension of what is happening in Asia. In our pages and on our web site, we aim for Asia to speak to the world, and the world to Asia. That is important at a time when this region is playing an ever greater role in world affairs.
There are other fine publications on international affairs. What sets us apart is our focus: Asia. We believe that the world is moving into “the Age of Asia,” to borrow a phrase from one of the articles in the inaugural issue of Global Asia in September 2006. This transformation is not going to occur overnight, but it has already begun.
The region’s dynamic economic growth, stable and accountable political systems, maturing democracies, and evolving sense of community are giving Asia greater weight in the world. These developments will have enormous implications for governments, businesses, societies and individuals across the globe. How that transformation is viewed, and shaped, from within Asia and how it is perceived outside Asia is an essential part of the story we have to tell.
The forces of globalization are having a profound impact throughout the world. And they are being influenced and channeled in different ways in different parts of the world. Ours is the story of Asia’s experience with globalization, and the ideas and debates influencing it. In pursuing our mission, we aim to play a part, however modest, in helping to shape the future of Asia.