Author

Seongho Sheen is Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Int’l Studies, Seoul National University, and is currently Visiting Fellow at the East West Center in Washington D.C. He was a CNAPS fellow at the Brookings Institution, an Assistant Research Professor at Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS), Honolulu, Hawaii and a research fellow at Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis (IFPA), Cambridge, Massachusetts. His research interests include international security, US foreign policy, Northeast Asian politics and the Korean Peninsula. Dr. Sheen received his Ph.D. and M.A. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, and B.A. from Seoul National University.

Abstract

Given the ongoing economic crisis, Obama’s top priority would focus on domestic issues such as health care, cap and trade, and energy. Yet, Obama still faces serious foreign policy challenges including war in Afghanistan and Iraq, global war on terror, rise of China, climate change and so forth. East Asia will be a second priority for Obama administration’s foreign policy agenda with its focus on war efforts in Afghanistan and broader Middle East area. To support its war efforts, Obama wishes to see stability in East Asia. And China is defined as a key partner in managing East Asia in peaceful manner. For that, Obama administration welcomes and encourages China’ peaceful rise and positive role in East Asian affairs as well as in global politics. At the same time, Obama wants to build stronger partnership with historic allies such as Japan, South Korea, and Australia. Forging new partnership with countries like India and Indonesia will be another agenda. Obama also wants to form a more institutionalized multilateral security mechanism in addition to existing bilateral relationship. As for the Korean peninsula, Obama welcomes South Korea’s efforts to build a strategic alliance by which South Korea will play a more role in regional and global security issues. Meanwhile Obama will adopt coercive diplomacy toward North Korea with tough sanctions on nuclear brinkmanship combined with direct dialogues. While PSI and missile defense will become an area of more cooperation, FTA ratification and renewal of Atomic Energy Agreement could become a sour spot for the two allies.

The full text in Korean is available here