Japan and South Korea: Adapting to Asia’s Changing Regional Order

Author(s): Linda Maduz
Editor(s): Brian G. Carlson, Oliver Thränert
Series Editor(s): Andreas Wenger
Book Title: Strategic Trends 2021: Key Developments in Global Affairs
Series: Strategic Trends
Pages: 99-122
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zürich
Publication Year: 2021
Publication Place: Zürich

Small and middle powers in Asia find themselves in a key arena of accelerating great-power competition. Nowhere are the economic dominance and politico-military ambitions of a rising China more evident and nowhere is the potential for military escalation between China and the US greater than here. Much sooner than in other regions of the world, countries in Asia have had to position themselves in the growing US-China rivalry. The experience of Japan and South Korea shows that middle powers have a role to play in shaping the rivalry, and thereby in shaping their own regional strategic environment.

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Bilateral Trade Flows with the Great Powers

US Alliances and Military Presence in the Asia-Pacific

Major Trade Agreements in the Asia-Pacific