Andy S. Lee

Japan does not maintain formal diplomatic relations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , and when they do meet, their talks often devolve into the difficult issues of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea during the 80s.…
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On January 19th, Al-Shabaab, a Somali Islamist territorial faction, was warded off by Ethiopian troops in Southern Somalia. This recent bout of conflict is not a recent phenomenon, as the greater conflict between Ethiopia and Somalia has…
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The lessons of South Korea’s developmental state should not be forgotten, as it reveals that economic development, even the most successful, have a cost, and that it is imperative to ensure that development occurs in a manner which…
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On October 20th, 2018, US President Donald Trump announced that the United States of America would be withdrawing from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty. The INF was signed in 1987 between the Cold War Superpowers, the United…
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On October 4th, the city of Osaka in Japan cut ties with its sister-city, San Francisco due to the controversy surrounding a statue depicting three comfort women from China, Korea, and the Philippines. The statue is called "Women's Column…
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Two Decades of Failure and Broken Promises: Chairman Kim Jong-Un proclaimed North Korea’s newfound nuclear status during his New Year's Speech of 2018, thus marking the failure of two decades of US policy towards non-proliferation.…
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Is the era of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) factionalism over? In February 2018, Fukushiro Nukaga, head of the third largest faction in the LDP (Heisei Kenkyu Kai), resigned as faction members became discontent with his failure to attain…
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The CCP's Narrative: In 2017, Xi Jinping addressed the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, extolling Ancient China as a once great nation "plunged into the darkness of domestic turmoil and foreign aggression; its people…
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On January 9th, 2018, the Inter-Korean talks between North and South Korea rendered some of the brightest prospects for peace on the Korean Peninsula in years. The representatives at the talks announced that North Korea would participate in…
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General Tso’s chicken is a popular Chinese dish found throughout North America, however, the dish just like its country of origin faces an identity problem. General Tso chicken does not originate from the mainland People’s Republic of China…
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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won a resounding electoral victory on October 22nd, with his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) retaining its 2/3rd supermajority. Buoyed by this development, Prime Minister Abe is likely to continue the highly…
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Rise of China: China is a rising revisionist power, seeking to realign the status quo in the Pacific and assure its security via domination of its periphery regions, after a "century of humiliation." In 1978, its GDP was a…
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