Category: General

8/16/2023 

In an article published by the Atlantic Council, Biases blind us to the risk of Chinese military intervention in Korea, Korea Society policy director Jonathan Corrado examines the historical record to highlight the cognitive biases that have plagued US intelligence assessments, with a particular focus on failures preceding China’s intervention in Korea over 70 years ago. Corrado warns that the “alchemy of cognitive and organizational biases is uniquely suited to advantage a PRC self-defensive counterattack strategy,” and offers some suggestions for how to avoid those pitfalls.

6/30/2023

Indo-Pacific Strategies and Foreign Policy Challenges
The US-China Strategic Competition

In a new Routledge book titled Indo-Pacific Strategies and Foreign Policy Challenges: The US-China Strategic Competition, Korea Society policy director Jonathan Corrado contributes a chapter, “Strengthening Indo-Pacific Chip Supply Chain: Opportunities and Obstacles for a Tech Alliance.”

10/27/2022

In a submission for the 2022 KEI Academic Paper Series, Coauhors Tom Byrne, Claire Callahan, Irene Kyoung, and Salomé Da Silva Duarte Lepez explore South Korea’s aspiration to achieve the status of global vaccine hub as a national strategic policy priority. The paper first outlines the characteristics of a global vaccine hub and a WHO biotechnology hub, touches on collaborative vaccine efforts in Asia, and then discusses the institutional structure of South Korea’s global vaccine hub and the country’s Covid-19 partnerships. The paper provides an overview of global vaccines, including Covid-19 vaccine production, showing where South Korea fits into that ecosystem, and summarizes global vaccine diplomacy efforts. The paper notes the laudable achievements of Operation Warp Speed in the U.S. (and in the presentation, the Vaccine Task Force in the U.K.) in rapidly producing safe and effective vaccines early in the pandemic, although vaccine nationalism inevitably prevailed as global demand exceeded supply. The paper also notes the shortcomings of national and bilateral vaccine diplomacy, as well as multilateral mechanisms, in providing vaccine access and ensuring equity. It concludes that South Korea’s demonstrated capabilities to rise as a global vaccine development, manufacturing, and training hub will help bolster global public health capacities in the future.

Click here to read.

To watch the paper presentation program, click here

9/12/2022

In an article co-authored with Major Jessica Taylor for Pacific Forum PacNet, Korea Society policy director Jonathan Corrado discusses how the United States can build a chip alliance in Northeast Asia without decoupling. They write that “a successful collaboration will address risks to key points of the semiconductor supply chain by adding rigor to the system, ensuring continued access to supply, and maintaining an environment of innovation… The effort will fall short if the alliance cannot address members’ concerns and respond to the risks posed by the People’s Republic of China without tripping down the slippery slope of technological decoupling.”

Click here to read.

To download the article as PDF, click here

7/29/2022

In an article for Korea On Point by The Sejong Institute, Korea Society policy director Jonathan Corrado discusses how the timing of Korea’s enhanced engagement with the Quad will be shaped by domestic political factors, changes in the regional security environment, and the preferences of the Quad member countries. He writes, “Korea’s ability to engage in this emerging security group will not merely be a test of its ambitions, but will also serve as a measure of the Quad’s durability and effectiveness.” Corrado uses the results of an expert survey administered as part of a Pacific Forum fellowship to reveal areas of both considerable symmetry and stark differences between U.S. and Korean experts. He concludes that, “It will be important to interrogate these divergences to optimize the Quad’s success.”

The article is available here.