Author: Jonas Parello-Plesner

There are rumours that Kim Jong-il will visit China late-March. If the visit takes place, it must be after the 18 March when the joint US-ROK military training ends, which is regarded by North Korea as a prelude to war. The supreme commander can’t be seen to leave the country during that period. Alternately, the visit might be made by a top official in the North Korean system, such as Kim Young-nam. So, what should we expect from this meeting?

Broadly speaking, our expectations can be framed around Kim Jong-il’s promise to his people. Read the rest of this entry »

Author: Jonas Parello-Plesner

Relations with North Korea seem heeded in a more positive direction after the Chinese PM Wen’s visit to Pyongyang, President Hu’s talk with Kim’s envoy and after the informal meeting between State Department official, Sung Kim and North Korean nuclear negotiator, Ri Gun in San Diego at the end of October. Yet tensions are still simmering with the naval clash between North and South Korea Monday the 9th.

On top of that Obama is going to tour the region starting Friday. Read the rest of this entry »

Author: Jonas Parello-Plesner

Barack Obama: ‘America … has to talk with its enemies.’ ’[It] requires allies who will listen to each other, learn from each other and, most of all, trust each other’.

North Korea is a litmus test for Obama’s foreign policy tenets. On the one hand, Obama promised to speak with the enemy to bring new results in foreign policy. Read the rest of this entry »

Author: Jonas Parello-Plesner

China and India (Chindia) is on everybody’s lips when talking about rising Asia.

Then what is KIA? A car, most people would reply. Yet it could also be the new brand-name for Asia’s middle powers; (K)orea, (I)ndonesia, and (A)ustralia. They are Asia’s 4th, 5th, and 6th largest economies. All three are often dwarfed by the big power play between China, India and Japan and the region’s –and the world’s – superpower, the US.

Yet look at Indonesia’s population as the world’s third largest democracy, Korea’s economy, and Australia’s size – a continent in itself. They are solid middle powers. Relocate them to Europe and they would be large countries on most accounts. In Asia, they are too small to be big, but too large to be small.

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Author: Jonas Parello-Plesner

Since the onset of the financial crisis, there have been suggestions to form a G-2 consisting of the United States and China.

This proposal is based on the facts that China is the largest creditor of the U.S., the U.S. is China’s biggest export destination, and the strong interdependence of their two economies provides a foundation for joint action that can shape the global economy.

This thinking is tempting when the G8 is seen to reflect an outdated balance of power and the G20 is considered too diluted to respond to global challenges.

Yet a G-2 would give a false assumption about stronger global governance and China would probably not deliver in such a format. Let me explain why.

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