Atlantic Council SCOWCROFT CENTER FOR STRATEGY AND SECURITY
ISSUE BRIEF
A Next-Generation Agenda for US-ROK-Japan Trilateral Cooperation GILBERT, SANGHYUN HAN, DECEMBER 2022 LAUREN AND KYOKO IMAI
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rilateral cooperation among the United States, the Republic of Korea (ROK), and Japan is integral to security, prosperity, and freedom in the Indo-Pacific. Accordingly, the Biden administration has made trilateral cooperation a priority for US foreign policy in the region, highlighting defense and nontraditional security issues including: science and technology, climate change, public health, and foreign aid. To advance trilateral cooperation most effectively over time, it will be necessary for next-generation experts from all three countries to explore innovative methods and action-oriented policy proposals.
The Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security works to develop sustainable, nonpartisan strategies to address the most important security challenges facing the United States and the world. The Center honors General Brent Scowcroft’s legacy of service and embodies his ethos of nonpartisan commitment to the cause of security, support for US leadership in cooperation with allies and partners, and dedication to the mentorship of the next generation of leaders. The Scowcroft Center’s Asia Security Initiative promotes forward-looking strategies and constructive solutions for the most pressing issues affecting the Indo-Pacific region, particularly the rise of China, in order to enhance cooperation between the United States and its regional allies and partners.
To advance this aim, the Atlantic Council, in partnership with the Korea Foundation, developed a new agenda for US-ROK-Japan cooperation, centered on next-generation perspectives and research beyond the limits of existing approaches. Instead of relying on rigid institutional structures or proposing mechanisms to litigate historical issues, this project takes a novel, impact-oriented and regional approach to trilateral cooperation. It defines areas where targeted, flexible, and informal cooperative arrangements among the three countries can provide clear mutual benefit, and thus create a foundation for deeper integration. In particular, this project seeks to address issues of both traditional and nontraditional security, such as deterrence, nonproliferation, trade, climate change, and pandemic response. In pursuit of this agenda, the Atlantic Council and the Korea Foundation convened three private virtual roundtables with rising American, South Korean, and Japanese junior- and mid-career experts who represent the next generation of policymakers, officials, and private-sector leaders who will operationalize trilateral cooperation over the course of their careers. This “Next-Generation Trilateral Network” discussed challenges and opportunities for trilateral cooperation in three areas: security and defense, science and technology (S&T), and global public goods. Based on the ideas raised during the roundtable discussions, the participants offered concrete and actionable recommendations for a next-generation US-ROK-Japan trilateral cooperation agenda with a particular emphasis on