Modernizing the South Korea-US Alliance Requires Checking the Assumptions

US strikes Iran, South Korea learns a hard lesson about alliances

South Korea had put a lot at stake for cooperating with the US on the THAAD project in 2016 – from the wrath of China, Seoul's largest trading partner, to protests from its own citizens. Now, ten years later, one may wonder if the gamble was too big a political investment.

Modernizing the South Korea-US Alliance Requires Checking the Assumptions

Both Seoul and Washington want to “modernize” the alliance – but they have different goals in mind.