My latest publication… a concise summary of three takeaways from my research on Japan’s and South Korea’s perspectives/policies on Taiwan and the Taiwan Strait …was just published *open-access (free)* on the Brookings Institution’s Taiwan-U.S. Quarterly Analysis blog.

Tokyo and Seoul have made significant diplomatic strides in recent years, but they have some notable differences in priorities and perspectives when it comes to security and risks regarding Taiwan and the Taiwan Strait.

Please take a look.

Link and suggested citation: Adam P. Liff, “How Japan and South Korea Diverge on Taiwan and the Taiwan Strait,’” Brookings Institution, February 22, 2024.

I am grateful to the Korea Foundation for a generous grant to Indiana University’s Institute for Korean Studies, which included support for my South Korea/U.S.-Korea alliance-focused research trips to Seoul/Gyeryong/Pusan and Washington, D.C. last year.

Excerpt:

How Japan and South Korea diverge on Taiwan and the Taiwan Strait

Amid historic U.S.-led efforts to demonstrate symbolic solidarity, outstanding differences also deserve attention

Adam P. Liff

February 22, 2024

“Over the past three years, concerns about a potential conflict in the Taiwan Strait have for the first time simultaneously emerged in Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) as a topic of mainstream policy discussions.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s historic joint statements in spring 2021 emphasizing “the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait” with then-Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and then-ROK President Moon Jae-in, respectively, were key catalysts. Additional impetus came from Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and saber-rattling by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), especially the unprecedented, large-scale military exercises around Taiwan in August 2022 following then-U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.

Most notably, new leadership in Seoul and Tokyo agreed last summer to a trilateral statement that “reaffirm[ed] the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as an indispensable element of security and prosperity in the international community” and called “for a peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues.”

Beyond the global headline-making summit statements expressing symbolic solidarity, however, what has received far less attention is something at least as significant in any practical sense: how the substance and focus of most discussions within these two “frontline” U.S. allies continue to manifest important differences in perspectives and priorities…“

Click here to read on!