Member Publications

Governing North-East Asia Security: Nuclear Non-proliferation & Strategic Reconciliation

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Nuclear proliferation issue has occupied the central position of the North East Asia area for more than 20 years.  Besides nuclear proliferation problem, there are still many other quarrels and disputes among the countries of this region.  Instead of discussing the proliferation issue technically and tactically, this paper would like to place this issue under a wider strategic context to find a way out and mainly focus on the relationships between or among China, ROK and Japan.

How Leaders Assess Intentions Under Uncertainty: Costly Signaling, Leader Background Experiences, and Nuclear Diplomacy

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How do leaders assess the intentions of their counterparts under uncertainty? This study
addresses this question by analyzing the development of nuclear programs. The technology
needed to build nuclear weapons and produce nuclear energy is indistinguishable. How,
then, can leaders identify a nuclear developer’s true intentions? An influential body of
literature suggests that costly signals play a key role in shaping states’ beliefs about whether a
developer of nuclear technology covets energy or bombs. I argue, however, that leader-centric

The Vision and the Steps: Iran, Weaponless Nuclear Deterrence and a World Free of Nuclear Weapons

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From Anne Harrington's latest article, she writes, "From its inception, nuclear strategy has been a profoundly ahistorical field. Only recently have scholars begun to exploit the wealth of evidentiary knowledge generated during the Cold War, whether that be in the form of diplomatic history or creating data sets against which to test rational choice models. Mining that data has revolutionary potential.

The Balance of Power in a Nuclear-Armed World

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The energy and enthusiasm generated by President Obama’s commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons has cooled substantially, a change reflected at the latest Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference, which ended with no final resolution or document. This latest failure feeds a generalized anxiety about the decline of the Nonproliferation Regime, a sense that an accumulation of small failures will lead to a tipping point after which the regime will no longer be able to play a role in generating the stable expectations that keep it politically meaningful.

STABILITY FOR SECURITY OR SECURITY FOR STABILITY? Reflecting Upon Strategic Stability Motives in Security Policy

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Strategic stability emerged as a concept in the Cold War realities of the U.S.-Soviet nuclear stand-off, concentrating on avoidance of an all-out nuclear war break-out during a crisis. In an era of profound interdependence, it was recognized a key to maintaining security and peace among nuclear armed nations being opponents or foes.

Policy Memo: Open Skies

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The Open Skies treaty is an agreement between 34 states in the Euro-Atlantic region providing for mutual aerial overflights of their sovereign territories, without restrictions on access. During an overflight, representatives of observer nations —in cooperation with representatives of the observed nation—photograph military-significant objects. This imagery is then pooled into a common data bank accessible to all treaty signatories, allowing them to observe the overflown states’ force posture and military infrastructure.

Policy Memo on China's Position on Missile Defense Issue

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There are several points to be concluded here through short review of the China’s official White Papers on issues related to missile defense. Firstly, China has always connected the missile defense issue with global strategic stability, outer space weapons-free, proliferation of WMD and nuclear disarmament. But its biggest worry is the Asia-Pacific theatre missile defense systems.