12th JPI-FNF Workshop
The 12th workshop of the Jeju Peace Institute and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom took place in October on Jeju island. The topic was “The Trump Administration and Security Challenges: The American Role for the Security in East Asia and in Europe”. Soon it will have been a year since Trump has been elected but his foreign policy remains unclear and chaotic. More often than not did he leave pundits and foreign politicians wondering about his foreign policy strategy, no matter if it is in Europe, South America, Africa or East Asia. What is his goal and how will US security policy further develop under the “America First” Trump? To get a better understanding of the security policy under Trump, JPI and FNF Korea invited numerous renowned experts to have intensive debates and compare the situation of Europe and East Asia.
In the first session the focus was on Europe. Prof. Joachim Krause asked “is the American century in Europe over?” while Stanislav Secrieru, Associate Analyst of the EU Institute for Security Studies, looked at how Europe perception of its own security has changed tremendously. Dr. Flemming Hansen from the Danish Institute for International Studies rounded up the presentation by emphasizing the role of Russia and how US-Russia conflict over missile defense affects Europe.
In the second session the focus was on East Asia and specifically the Korean peninsula. First, Park Sang-hyun from the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses looked at the changing security environment in Asia and described the friction points between the USA and China. Especially North Korea is a major problem here. Park Hahnkyu, Professor at Kyunghee University examined Realist and Liberalist approaches and provided four possible scenarios of the future US-China relationship. Following this, Kim Taewoo, former President of the Korea Institute for National Unification, argued for the redeployment of US nuclear weapons on the Peninsula or even the nuclearization of South Korean forces.
With such distinguished experts and the superb moderators, Dr. Go Myong-hyun from Asan Institute and H.E. Ra Jong-yil, distinguished Professor at Gachon University, the workshop was a great success. Various topics were addressed and all participants engaged in intensive discussions.
