Joonbum Bae, PhD
There is near-consensus that China’s fears about the potential ramifications of regime collapse in North Korea are behind its reluctance to apply measures that could halt their nuclear program. This paper argues that if uncertainty over the costs of North Korean collapse prevent cooperation between China and the US on North Korea’s nuclear program, reducing that uncertainty is the most direct, and perhaps effective, way to enhance Sino-American cooperation on the issue. It proposes an understanding between the US and China on a post-Kim regime Korea as the means to reduce that uncertainty. The benefits and possible elements of such an agreement as well as its obstacles are analyzed.
Joonbum Bae, PhD
Joonbum Bae is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Scowcroft Institute for International Affairs. He earned his PhD in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2015. He received his MA in international relations at Seoul National University and his BA from the same school. His main areas of interest include international conflict and foreign policy decision-making. His dissertation examined the interaction between politics within authoritarian regimes and the security environment by analyzing the effect of international conflict on the duration of authoritarian regimes, their mode of breakdown, and the level of human costs during regime transitions. His research also examines the extent that international politics in East Asia requires different analytical lenses through several case studies of bi-lateral relations in the region.