In recent years, China and the United States have each turned economic interdependence into an instrument of coercion, using their dominant positions in international trade to push states and firms to comply with their political goals. What is distinctive about this form of economic pressure, and how can other countries fight back?This groundbreaking book explores the weaponization of economic interdependence and its implications for the international order through a wealth of new ...

In The Impossible State, seasoned international-policy expert and lauded scholar Victor Cha pulls back the curtain on provocative, isolationist North Korea, providing our best look yet at its history and the rise of the Kim family dynasty and the obsessive personality cult that empowers them. Cha illuminates the repressive regime's complex economy and culture, its appalling record of human rights abuses, and its belligerent relationship with the United States, and analyzes the re...

From a seasoned advisor, "a meaty, fast-paced portrait of North Korean society, economy, politics and foreign policy" ( Foreign Affairs).In The Impossible State, international-policy expert and former Director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council Victor Cha pulls back the curtain on this controversial and isolated country, providing the best look yet at North Korea's history, the rise of the Kim family dynasty, and the obsessive pers...

A major new history of North and South Korea, from the late nineteenth century to the present day“Cha and Pacheco Pardo have years of expertise in Korean international relations. . . . A crisp and balanced account.”—Christopher Harding, The TelegraphKorea has a long, riveting history—it is also a divided nation. South Korea is a vibrant democracy, the tenth largest economy, and is home to a world-renowned culture. North Korea is ru...

North Korea is commonly thought of as the most mysterious place in the world. The country is marked by its opacity and inaccessibility, its inner workings seen as impossible for outsiders to grasp. In this groundbreaking book, the leading scholar and practitioner Victor D. Cha shines a light into the “black box” of North Korea and draws critical lessons for the possible reunification of Korea after many decades of division.The Black Box demonstrates convincingly that North...

In light of growing discussion about the future of the Korean peninsula, the CSIS Korea Chair held a major conference featuring senior-level policy and scholarly discussions on the topic of unification, and this report provides a record of that conference. It was a landmark event addressing economic, business, political, and security opportunities of unification, and it was cohosted with the National Research Council for Economics, Humanities and Social Sciences (NRCS) of the Republic of K...

A close look at the evolution of American political alliances in Asia and their futureWhile the American alliance system in Asia has been fundamental to the region's security and prosperity for seven decades, today it encounters challenges from the growth of China-based regional organizations. How was the American alliance system originally established in Asia, and is it currently under threat? How are competing security designs being influenced by the United State...

The regime of Kim Jong-Il has been called "mad," "rogue," even, by the Wall Street Journal, the equivalent of an "unreformed serial killer." Yet, despite the avalanche of television and print coverage of the Pyongyang government's violation of nuclear nonproliferation agreements and existing scholarly literature on North Korean policy and security, this critical issue remains mired in political punditry and often misleading sound bites. Victor Cha and David Kang step back from the...

To commemorate the one-year anniversary of the report by United Nations Commission of Inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, CSIS held an unprecedented gathering of policymakers, opinion leaders, and stakeholders on the topic of North Korean human rights. The gathering aimed to carry forward the momentum created by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry report and subsequent UN actions. The conference was organized by the Center for Strategic and Internatio...

The Beijing Olympics will be remembered as the largest, most expensive, and most widely watched event of the modern Olympic era. But did China present itself as a responsible host and an emergent international power, much like Japan during the 1964 Tokyo Games and South Korea during the 1988 Seoul Games? Or was Beijing in 2008 more like Berlin in 1936, when Germany took advantage of the global spotlight to promote its political ideology at home and abroad?Beyond the Final Score...

Victor D. Cha and David C. Kang’s Nuclear North Korea was first published in 2003 amid the outbreak of a lasting crisis over the North Korean nuclear program. It promptly became a landmark of an ongoing debate in academic and policy circles about whether to engage or contain North Korea. Fifteen years later, as North Korea tests intercontinental ballistic missiles and the U.S. president angrily refers to Kim Jong-un as “Rocket Man,” Nuclear North Korea remains an essentia...

Victor D. Cha and David C. Kang’s Nuclear North Korea was first published in 2003 amid the outbreak of a lasting crisis over the North Korean nuclear program. It promptly became a landmark of an ongoing debate in academic and policy circles about whether to engage or contain North Korea. Fifteen years later, as North Korea tests intercontinental ballistic missiles and the U.S. president angrily refers to Kim Jong-un as “Rocket Man,” Nuclear North Korea remains an essentia...