March 09, 2017
The Ultimate Missile Shield: The U.S.-South Korea Alliance?
The flurry of news stories about North Korea’s latest salvo of missile tests gives Kim Jong-un the media coverage he craves and diverts attention from enduring strategic realities. Four extended-range Scud missiles are broadly construed to highlight Pyongyang’s inexorable march toward acquiring a long-range nuclear arsenal that will transform the balance of power in Northeast Asia.
The news is all the more jarring when surrounding powers are embroiled in their own domestic issues: impeached South Korean president Park Geun-hye is being implicated in a corruption scandal involving Samsung; the United States is convulsing over a mystery triggered by Russia’s interference in the American electoral process; and China is completing critical political proceedings enroute to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party later this year.
We need to avoid manufacturing a crisis. Headlines tell us the “shocking” news that North Korea is apparently testing missiles aimed at U.S. and allied targets. Indeed, what did we think they were aiming at?
Read the full article at The National Interest.
More from CNAS
-
The Quad Plus the Philippines
Reports
Introduction As the United States increasingly looks to multilateral partnerships to meet challenges in the Indo-Pacific, the Quad (Australia, India, Japan, and the United Sta...
By Lisa Curtis, Evan Wright & Nathaniel Schochet
-
Free Expression Encore: The Best of 2024
Podcast
Free Expression's final episode of 2024 features some of Wall Street Journal editor at large Gerry Baker's best interviews of the year, including conversations with Richard Fo...
By Richard Fontaine
-
Trump 2.0 and Security in Asia
Video
Donald Trump is bringing his "America First" agenda back to U.S. foreign policy. What could this mean for Japan and the partners in Asia? Akira Igata, an Adjunct Senior Fellow...
By Akira Igata
-
Syria: What Happened and What Comes Next
Video
After more than a decade of civil war involving major interventions from foreign powers, over the past week a rebel alliance incredibly rapidly gained control of city after ci...
By Richard Fontaine
