Configuring the U.S.-ROK Alliance for a Changing Asian Security Environment

Is the U.S. alliance with the Republic of Korea (ROK) optimized for a changing world?  In this U.S. Naval War College lecture, Dr. Van Jackson identifies a number of trends that increasingly define not only the emerging Asian security environment, but how North Korea is changing as well: military modernization and arms racing; asymmetric military strategies that blunt power projection capabilities; and a recurring pattern of “gray zone” coercion.  These trends mean trouble unless the alliance can start addressing a number of longstanding but repressed disagreements that converge quite unpleasantly with the direction the region and North Korea is headed.

Dr. Van Jackson is a Visiting Fellow at the Center for a New American Security and a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. Prior to his current appointments he served as a strategist and policy adviser in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The views expressed are his own. Twitter: @WonkVJ.

Photo credit: Secretary of Defense