Jump to Navigation

Multilateral Security Cooperation in Northeast Asia

IGCC’s project The Future of Multilateral Security Cooperation in Northeast Asia: Exploring Regional Security Architecture and the Economic-Security Nexus is part of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Asia Security Initiative. Project goals are two-fold: 

  1. to develop multidisciplinary collaborative research on the nature, dynamics, and long-term prospects for multilateral security cooperation in Northeast Asia.
  2.  to use this research as input in training the next generation of security practitioners and analysts in Northeast Asia.

Under the leadership of Professor T. J. Pempel (UC Berkeley), project partners at Yonsei University, the Unversity of Tokyo, and the University of California. Project activities have included several international workshops and training sessions and the development of multiple research papers which are currently under revision for a combined publication.

A workshop held June 14–15, 2010, at Yonsei University convened some 25 experts from the United States, Japan, China, and South Korea.The workshop was followed by a training exercise for policy practitioners from Korea, Japan, and China. Scenarios involving possible security challenges in Northeast Asia were played through with participants typically taking roles of officials from nations other than their own.

The second research workshop, held at the University of Tokyo, focused on the economic-security nexus in Northeast Asia. Again, about two dozen participants from the United States, Japan, China, and Korea participated. The workshop focused on economic peace theory, gaps between countries with economic power and those with military muscle, and the East Asian puzzle: With so many tensions in the region why ahve there been no shooting wars in fifty years? This workshop also was followed by a training session using scenarios.

In November, 2010, several investigators from the two projects held seminars for policymakers and political elites in Beijing, Seoul, and Tokyo. Two such seminars were held in each capital and included elected officials, defense and foreign policy planners, and journalists and opinion leaders.

For more information, please contact Heidi Serochi.

Back to Top