Professor Kristi Govella publishes new article "Why Japan and South Korea Won’t Go Nuclear"

Professor Kristi Govella and co-author Professor Victor Cha (Georgetown University) have published a new article entitled “Why Japan and South Korea Won’t Go Nuclear” in Foreign Affairs. The authors argue that the worry that South Korea and Japan are on the brink of nuclearization is often exaggerated. Drawing on new survey data, they demonstrate that the majority of “strategic elites”—current and former officials, business leaders, scholars, and experts—in both countries are not in favor of going nuclear, at least for now. That ambivalence, however, is conditional: on the gravity of the threat, but also on the actions of each ally. If either Seoul or Tokyo chooses to take the nuclear leap, the other could soon follow. Even as it deals with pressing challenges elsewhere in the world, Washington would do well to recommit to extended deterrence in Asia to keep its allies from taking that decision.

This full article can be accessed here.