An Interview with Dr. Sook-Jong Lee, President of the East Asia Institute (EAI)

The East Asia Institute (EAI), which has existed since 2002, defines itself as a “knowledge-network [dedicated to] generating creative policy ideas.” What are the research areas EAI focuses on and how does it fulfill its networking functions?

Currently, EAI is focusing on a two-year Middle Power Diplomacy Initiative, which is being funded by the MacArthur Foundation. The goal of this initiative is to facilitate the formation of a middle power network in East Asia that can help China and the U.S. co-exist peacefully in the region. We are in the research phase of this project right now – i.e., our network of scholars are producing issue briefs, working papers, and policy recommendations that will lay the foundation for a large international conference on the Middle Power Initiative later in 2014. EAI is also working on policy suggestions for South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s Trustpolitik effort, which involves a complex mix of deterrence, engagement, and trust-related strategies directed at North Korea. Third, we are carrying out research on how to manage conflicts and build confidence for peace and cooperation in Northeast Asia. Next, our Public Opinion Center is devoting a lot of energy to a project that analyzes global data sets. Our goal in this area is to promote a ‘Creating Shared Value’ approach for sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility. Finally, we continue to conducts panel surveys on presidential, legislative, and local elections.

In terms of our networking efforts, EAI regularly forms issue-specific task forces and research networks that are made up of recognized nonresident experts from Northeast Asian countries and beyond. We believe that this approach enables us to be timely, flexible, creative and diverse. It also allows us to produce a larger number of research ‘outputs’ by outsourcing the work to independent groups of outside experts. In turn, we support their efforts by facilitating their interactions with top government officials and political leaders, and by linking them to internationally-recognized academic and research institutions around the world. In this way, EAI serves as a hub through which scholars can interact with like-minded experts and maximize their impact on policymakers.

In addition, the institute conducts the EAI Fellows Program, which funds several East Asian specialists per year from around the world to come and conduct hands-on field research in the region. While the Fellows choose the subjects of their research within three broad areas – peace, governance, and development in East Asia – EAI and its partner institutions in China, Japan, and Taiwan work together to ensure that the research that is done is interdisciplinary and comparative in nature. The EAI Fellows then hold seminars and present lectures in two or more East Asian countries based on the results of their research. Their presentations not only provide an opportunity for professional networking and inter-generational communications, they also enable additional discussions on regional issues.

In 2008, EAI established an ongoing research panel on “The Future of North Korea.” What are the panel’s recommendations on how to deal most effectively with the current regime in Pyongyang?

Instead of continuing to embrace the two existing policies toward North Korea (containment and engagement) the EAI has been trying to convince different stakeholders to adopt a third way. Our first foray in this area was the Future of North Korea Research Panel, which in 2012 published the Future of North Korea 2032: Coevolutionary Strategy for the Advancement. This text basically argued that Pyongyang’s “military first” policies were undermining its security, economy, and politics at the most fundamental level. Given this ‘trilemma’, internally-driven self-transformation is the country’s only real option for the future. Forced, externally-driven change, in contrast, is no option at all. That is why South Korea and the international community should pursue an alternative ‘survival model’ for the North Korean regime that involves the South Korean government matching any changes within North Korea on a step-by-step basis. Positive internal reforms by Pyongyang, in other words, should be synchronized with support or aid from Seoul. This concept came to be known as the “coevolutionary strategy” because it did indeed urge a simultaneous and reciprocal series of positive changes on both countries’ part.

Subsequent to the above effort, we performed a North Korea policy research project in 2013 entitled “Beyond Trustpolitik on the Korean Peninsula,” which was designed to help develop the Park Geun-hye administration’s current trust-building policy toward Pyongyang. As mentioned earlier, it is a complex strategy that simultaneously involves deterrence, engagement, and trust in order to encourage North Korea to pursue a new security policy that abandons nuclear weapons and stresses economic development. But for this to happen, the EAI research team observed, North Korea must be given greater incentives to change and experience higher costs if it refuses to do so.

How does the rise of China impact Seoul’s foreign and security policy (and EAI’s work)?

The rise of China is imposing unprecedented and unique foreign policy challenges on South Korea, especially when it is combined with its North Korea problem. On the one hand, Seoul needs a continued security commitment from the U.S., primarily to blunt Pyongyang’s military adventurism. On the other hand, China’s influence over South Korea has been increasing, which is unsurprising given Beijing’s status as Seoul’s number-one trading partner. At the same time, China’s close political ties with North Korea means that the South Korean government must pursue a sophisticated policy that maintains a close relationship with both Washington and Beijing, and that avoids having to choose one partner over the other.

Given thorny problems such as these, the rise of China has been at the core of EAI’s recent studies in foreign affairs. For example, our 2007 analysis, 2020 China Risk, looked at the long-term economic risks China faces and what repercussions they might have on South Korea. In 2010, we then produced [The] Emergence of Complex Alliances in the 21st Century, which examined the complex changes occurring in Asia’s alliance systems. In 2011, EAI published Global Superpower?, which sought to predict China’s future in a more comprehensive way – i.e., by focusing on the relationships between its domestic politics, social policy, and international relations. In the same year, Crisis and Complexity not only gauged the global impact of the 2008 financial crisis, it also analyzed the competing ‘global orders’ the U.S. and China promoted (and continue to promote). The impact of China’s ascendance on Japan’s efforts to build an East Asian community next led to our Japan and East Asia, which argued that China’s rise poses a serious question for Japan – i.e., should it expand its regional engagement in East Asia or should it pursue a foreign policy that transcends the region? Then, in 2012, US-China Relations2025 predicted how the interactions between these two great powers – particularly in the areas of security, economics, culture, and the environment – would play out in the near- to mid-term. In 2013 EAI released Toward 2020: Ten Agendas for South Korea’ Foreign Policy, whichemphasized the importance of maintaining “systemic flexibility” if Seoul hopes to manage the ongoing power shift in East Asia in a peaceful way. (It also suggested that Seoul should simultaneous develop ‘a complex strategic alliance’ with the U.S. and expand its ‘cooperative networks’ with China.)

Finally, and as I mentioned earlier, EAI is presently focusing on East Asia’s middle powers and the roles they are playing in reconfiguring the region’s traditional hub-and-spoke model of bilateral alliances. We have several reasons for pursuing this effort, but helping to enhance the U.S. and China’s abilities to resolve conflicts and develop cooperative norms is an important one. As for the future, we are preparing to launch a study of the Washington-Seoul-Tokyo nexus that would ideally help reinforce regional security, while not damaging the growing economic ties in the region

What is EAI doing to support and promote young students and researchers interested in international relations and global security?

Educating and training tomorrow’s scholars and researchers is a large part of EAI’s mission. We operate, for example, a number of programs that bring together students from Korea and abroad. Throughout the years, we have also hired hundreds of students to work as interns in our various research centers, where they have the opportunity to contribute to our research projects and come in contact with a variety of experts. After their internships are finished, they then remain connected to each other and EAI via our Intern Alumni Network, which since 2010 has held an annual academic conference where former interns present papers and share their ideas on international relations. [Note: The ISN highlighted some of the best papers presented at the 2013 conference, one of which received ISN-sponsored prize money, on its website.]

Additionally, just this past year EAI partnered with the Korea Foundation to create the Korea Friendship Program for international students. The purpose of the program is to help foreigners studying in Korea to get an in-depth look at Korean life that will help them develop a strong bond with the country for the rest of their lives. We support this goal by conducting a number of lectures and networking opportunities for the students, along with providing them the opportunity to write and present papers. Thus far, we feel the program has been a big success and we are currently helping the participants to establish an alumni network through which they can stay in touch and mentor future international students in Korea.

Finally, let me stress that EAI holds the student-centered Sarangbang lecture series on special topics in international relations, it offers a recurring graduate seminar course for competitively-selected individuals, and it recently organized a trip to China in order for young researchers to conduct field work.

For additional information please see:
external pageEAI 'About the Institute'call_made
external pageEAI Future of North Korea Panelcall_made
external pageEAI EPIK Spider Programcall_made
external pageKF-EAI Korea Friendship Programcall_made