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Category: Policy

Global Views 2010, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ biennial survey of American public opinion on U.S. foreign policy issues, reveals new and surprising perceptions of Korea. Join former Ambassador to Korea and The Korea Society Chair Thomas Hubbard, noted scholar and policy observer Victor Cha, and The Chicago Council’s Tom Wright as they present the 2010 survey address the implications of its findings.

When President Barack Obama emerged from his July meeting with President Lee Myung-Bak, he proclaimed the U.S.-ROK alliance “the linchpin of not only security for the Republic of Korea and the United States, but also for the Pacific as a whole.” This constituted new language to describe the strength and the importance of the two nations’ relationship on the sixtieth anniversary of the start of the Korean War—an alliance that has evolved over the past half century to become one of America’s most successful postwar relationships. However, questions remain about how deeply rooted the relationship is among the general public. Americans know of Korea, but for a long time this understanding did not extend much beyond memories of the Korean War and reruns of the television series, M.A.S.H. The findings of Global Views 2010 shed light on the state of American thinking on Korea and provide important lessons for leaders seeking to formulate policy within the alliance and the East Asian region.

 

Monday, October 4, 2010

Report Release: U.S. Attitudes Toward Korea

 

with

Victor Cha
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Georgetown University

Thomas Wright
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs

and

Thomas Hubbard
McLarty Associates and The Korea Society

Victor Cha was named to the newly created Korea Chair at CSIS in May 2009. He is also a professor of government and director for Asian Studies at Georgetown University. From 2004 to 2007, he was director for Asian affairs at the White House, where he was responsible for coordinating U.S. policy for Japan, the two Koreas, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Island nations. He also served as U.S. deputy head of delegation to the Six-Party Talks and has acted as a senior consultant on East Asian security issues for different branches of the U.S. government. A recipient of numerous academic awards, including the prestigious Fulbright scholarship (twice) and MacArthur Foundation fellowship, Dr. Cha spent two years as a John M. Olin National Security Fellow at Harvard University and as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation.

Dr. Cha is the author or coauthor of numerous books and articles, including Beyond the Final Score: The Politics of Sport in Asia (Columbia University Press, 2009), Nuclear North Korea: A Debate on Engagement Strategies (Columbia University Press, 2003), and Alignment Despite Antagonism: The U.S.-Korea-Japan Security Triangle (Stanford University Press, 1999). He is also a frequent contributor and guest analyst for various media outlets, including Choson Ilbo, Joongang Ilbo, CNN, National Public Radio, New York Times, Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, Asahi Shimbun, and Japan Times. Dr. Cha holds a B.A., an M.I.A., and a Ph.D. from Columbia University, as well as an M.A. from Oxford University.

Thomas Wright is executive director of studies at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He also lectures on U.S. national security policy at the Harris School for Public Policy at the University of Chicago. Previously, Wright served as a senior researcher for the “Princeton Project on National Security,” a multi-year bipartisan project of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and was the principal drafter of the final report titled Forging a World of Liberty Under Law. He earned his doctorate from Georgetown University in 2007 and was awarded a pre-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a post-doctoral fellowship at Princeton University. His area of expertise is international relations with a special focus on Europe, multilateralism, and U.S. foreign policy. His work has appeared in the American Political Science Review, the Washington Quarterly, Survival, Prospect Magazine, The Washington Post, and a number of international newspapers and media outlets. At the Council, he is currently directing projects on the transatlantic relationship, soft power in Asia, public opinion and American foreign policy, amongst others.

Thomas C. Hubbard is Chairman of The Korea Society and senior director at McLarty Associates, where he specializes in Asian affairs. A career foreign-service officer for nearly forty years, he served as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea from 2001 to 2004, and before that as Ambassador to the Philippines from 1996 to 2000. He served seven years in Japan and was deputy chief of mission and acting ambassador in Malaysia. He held key Washington postings, including assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs. Ambassador Hubbard was a principal negotiator of the 1994 Agreed Framework aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and headed the first senior-level U.S. government delegation to North Korea. He was also President Clinton’s envoy to promote human rights and democracy in Burma. Ambassador Hubbard sits on numerous advisory boards. He received his BA in political science from the University of Alabama and has been awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Maryland and the University of Alabama.