Knowledge-Net for a Better World November 2019   EAI Issue Briefing ROK-US Cooperation in an Era of US-China Strategic Competition Sook Jong Lee, Distinguished Fellow & Trustee, East Asia Institute Professor, Sungkyunkwan University   "South Korea Needs Time to Find Its Niche within the US-led Indo-Pacific Vision" The strategic competition between the US and China presents imperative challenges to South Korea’s foreign policy. Throughout history, Korea has maintained its position of ambiguity between the US and China, reluctant to lean towards one or the other. Yet with the US-led Indo Pacific vision and China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), it is becoming increasingly difficult for South Korea to continue "walking [such] tightrope" between the two great powers. Professor Sook Jong Lee of Sungkyunkwan University, who is also a Distinguished Fellow and Trustee at EAI, suggests that South Korea’s public opinion is more favorable toward the US over China on the basis of results from EAI’s surveys conducted in 2019. She contends that a "prudent expansion of the alliance is needed" where South Korea takes caution not to confront China and the US remains patient in encouraging its ally to partake in its Indo-Pacific vision.      Recent Publications Working Paper | China’s Digital Transformation and Its Implication for the Asia-Pacific Working Paper | Rising China, Developmental Security and the Emerging Order in the Asia-Pacific Working Paper | The United States, China and the Asia-Pacific: The Shifting Economic Agenda     #909 Sampoong B/D, 158, Eulji-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul, 04548, Republic of Korea Tel 82 2 2277 1683  |  Fax 82 2 2277 1684 | Email EAI | Unsubscribe Copyright 2019 © EAST ASIA INSTITUTE. All Rights Reserved.