Deterrence is not enough in Northeast Asia

SEOUL: In August, the leaders of the United States, South Korea and Japan met at Camp David for their first trilateral summit. The resulting agreement to deepen military and intelligence cooperation has steered Northeast Asian geopolitics into uncharted territory.

In view of the rising threat from North Korea, deteriorating ties with China and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, US President Joe Biden's administration has pursued a bold and systematic regional strategy. Multilateral coalitions like this one, the reinvigorated Quad (Australia, India, Japan and the US) and the relatively new Aukus arrangement (comprising Australia, the United Kingdom and the US) augment the traditional hub-and-spoke model of security cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, with the US at the center of each.