Crisis stability is as important as deterrence and as much attention should be paid to preventing wars as to winning them.

While a military alliance and values alliance between South Korea and the US have both been espoused by previous conservative governments in Korea, the economic security alliance is a fairly new concept. But we should be wary of the flashing red lights.

As one expert put it, progress on North Korea will only come once we look at things from its point of view.

The Japanese government is calling to prevent nuclear proliferation and reduce nuclear arsenals while maintaining its current nuclear deterrence, while civil society and the Nagasaki municipal government are advocating the ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the establishment of a nuclear-weapons-free zone in Northeast Asia on the grounds that eliminating nuclear weapons is the only way forward. Those represent two conflicting attitudes toward the nuclear issue in Japan today.

The North Korean nuclear issue can’t be resolved without US cooperation with Beijing — but Pompeo’s rhetoric makes that appear near impossible.

The Cold War was a time when humankind trembled at the fearful prospect of nuclear war. But it was also a time when strategic stability coalesced from the strategy of nuclear deterrence and a range of negotiations about nuclear disarmament. That’s known as the paradox of the Cold War.