Pursuing a Comprehensive Vision for the U.S.-ROK Alliance

The CSIS International Security Program presented a new study that proposes a comprehensive framework for broadening the foundations of the U.S.-ROK strategic partnership beyond traditional alliance cooperation. Recognizing the widespread calls and opportune timing for strengthening relations and developing the alliance into a global partnership or “twenty-first century strategic alliance,” this report develops a road map for such a vision and identifies functional areas in which cooperation might be expanded to meet regional, global, and nontraditional challenges.

Author and lead investigator Scott Snyder, director of the Center for U.S.-Korea Policy at the Asia Foundation, discussed the project’s findings.  Michael Finnegan, senior research associate at the National Bureau of Asian Research, provided comments and offered additional perspective on broadening the partnership, based on his recent comparative analysis of the U.S.-ROK alliance with the NATO and U.S.-Japan alliances. Stephen Flanagan, one of the CSIS project’s senior advisers, moderated the discussion.