Mel Gurtov
Biographic Data
| ID | 247854 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mel Gurtov |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mel |
| FAMILY NAME | Gurtov |
| SIGNATURE | GURTOV M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Portland State University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 37 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 37 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1976 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Statements in Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Asian Perspective
Trump and China
China's consistent message to the U.S. since Donald Trump 's election is the need for deeper cooperation. But Trump and his hawkish advisers and Congressmembers seem bent on a trade war and closer ties to Taiwan. His strategy is that once the Middle East and Ukraine are "solved," he will be positioned to force Xi Jinping's hand. But the Chinese have options for dealing with U.S. economic pressure. Still, Trump might bargain on U.S. security ties …
The China-Russia Partnership And US Policy Options
China's international position is quite strong: it has leverage over Russia, which is increasingly dependent on China for economic and military aid; and it is in a strong bargaining position with the European Union, which relies on Chinese trade and investment. These circumstances might not seem conducive to improvement in China-U.S. relations, especially since many longstanding issues, such as on Taiwan and trade, remain unresolved. But progress…
The China Balloon Incident
The recent China Balloon Incident has all the appearance of high drama, though the heat is mainly provided by domestic politics rather than a strategic face-off of the U-2 or Cuba Missile Crisis variety. This is a drama in three acts. In Act 1, "Discovery", the Biden administration went into action mode on finding that a Chinese "spy" balloon had crossed the US. An air force jet shot the balloon down, displaying Cold War-style toughness with Chin…
Xi Jinping Under Pressure in Central Asia and Taiwan
In the course of his September Central Asia tour, Xi Jinping met with Vladimir Putin for what many expected would be a reprise of their "no limits" declaration, issued when Putin was in Beijing just prior to launching his war on Ukraine. In fact, there were major limits to Xi's support of Putin's war then, and that became even more evident this time around. Putin acknowledged as much. "We highly appreciate the balanced position of our Chinese fri…
In the South Pacific, Chinese Opportunism Meets Western Indifference
A secret pact between the Solomon Islands and China, mainly concerned with internal security in the islands, has sparked new US-China competition in the Pacific Island countries. The United States, Australia, and New Zealand worry about a future Chinese base in the Solomons and elsewhere, whereas most Pacific Island countries worry about environmental and economic problems and want to stay clear of the US-China rivalry. Omitted from most analyses…
After the Biden-Xi Summit
This article considers the bases for establishing common ground with China in a period of rising tensions between the two nations
The Biden China Initiative, A Flawed and Dysfunctional Policy
President Biden is continuing the disengagement policy toward China that began under Donald Trump, now with strong bipartisan support. The policy has all the elements of containment of China, including restrictions on technology, trade, investment, formation of the informal Quad (US-Japan-Australia-India) alliance, sale of nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, continuation of high tariffs on Chinese exports, and increased official contacts wit…
The Afghanistan Debacle
This article assesses the US debacle in Afghanistan in light of the Vietnam War and US forever wars
"Presidential Warfare and the "Forever Wars
This article examines the origins and development of the US "forever wars" in recent decades, and its implications both for democracy and warfare
America in Retreat
The "End of Poverty" Illusion
The World Bank's "International Poverty Line," a politically driven standard, obscures the reality that, in East Asia as elsewhere, poverty is increasing alongside enormous wealth for the richest ten percent. The COVID-19 pandemic is driving tens of millions more people into poverty in East Asia than would otherwise be the case, challenging all governments to meet the crisis where it most counts: in health care, food, aid to small businesses, and…
The Dangerous New US Consensus on China and the Future of US-China Relations
The trade war and technological competition with China are symptomatic of a much larger issue: a dangerous gridlock in US-China relations that may become permanent, with dire consequences not just for the two countries' economies but also for the global economy and quite possibly East Asia's and international security. Martin Wolf, Financial Times columnist, is right to conclude: "Across-the-board rivalry with China is becoming an organising prin…
At Home and Abroad, Trump Tramples Human Rights
In January 1941, with the prospect looming of US involvement in another European war, President Franklin Roosevelt spoke of America's purpose in the world: to protect and promote "four freedoms." FDR drew a clear link between US security and the fulfillment of human rights at home. "Just as our national policy in internal affairs has been based upon a decent respect for the rights and the dignity of all of our fellow men within our gates, so our …
Protesting Policy and Practice in South Korea's Nuclear Energy Industry
The Fukushima nuclear disaster of March 2011 has raised serious questions about nuclear power. In our work since Fukushima, we have tried to answer two questions: What is the current status of nuclear energy in Asia? Does nuclear power have a future in East Asia? By answering those questions, we hope to contribute to the global debate about nuclear energy. To be sure, questions of such magnitude can rarely be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’.…
Diplomatic Remedies for THAAD Madness
This commentary assesses the geopolitical implications for war and peace in Northeast Asia of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense antimissile system that the US seeks to install in South Korea at a time of deep tensions in Northeast Asia
Sanctions and Defiance in North Korea
North Korea has now been sanctioned five times by the United Nations Security Council for its nuclear and missile tests: resolutions 1718 (2006), 1874 (2009), 2087 (2013), 2094 (2013) and 2270 (2016). UNSC Resolution 2270 is the strongest one yet, spelling out in great detail the proscribed goods and requiring that all parties neither import them from nor export them to North Korea. Each resolution obliges the members to carry out the terms of th…
Rules and Rocks
The long-running, multi-party dispute over control of islets in the South China Sea (SCS) is worsening both in rhetoric and provocative activity. Meeting in late May at the Shangri-La Dialogue on regional security, US and Chinese defense officials sparred over responsibility for the increased tension, though they stopped short of issuing threats. In fact, all sides to the dispute say they want to avoid violence, prefer a diplomatic resolution, an…
The Trans-Pacific Partnership
The American people have become used to government trickery in foreign affairs-wars and interventions based on lies and falsified evidence, "national security" used to justify the whittling away of privacy, classification of documents to hide embarrassing disclosures, massaging of budget figures to mask outrageous spending on arms, and demands for new weapons when already in possession of an unmatched conventional and nuclear arsenal
China's Triangle Diplomacy
Back in the days of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, the "strategic triangle" with the Soviet Union and China was the great game. The idea was to play off the two communist powers against one another, relying on their ideological warfare under Mao, deep cultural differences, and open conflict in border regions to sustain their mutual suspicions and fears of attack. Now the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak: China seems to be in charge of t…
Xi Jinping Visits Seoul
China and Korea watchers jumped to attention when it was announced that Xi Jinping would visit South Korea from July 3-4, rather than visit North Korea first. Although the trip could have been seen as reciprocating ROK President Park Geun-hye's visit to China in June 2013, the Chinese side surely was aware that the trip would be viewed abroad as a departure from standard Chinese protocol and would probably upset Kim Jong-un and his colleagues. Bu…
Time for the U.S. to Engage North Korea
Issues: diplomacy, engagement, ngos, North Korea missile launch, nuclear tests, Northeast Asia Security Dialogue, nuclear weapons, Six-Party Talks, sunshine policy In recent weeks, North Korea has sent the usual mix of signals about its strategic intentions on the Korean peninsula. In July it carried out a ballistic missile test in the East Sea (Sea of Japan), in violation of UN resolutions. It also threatened retaliation-including a nuclear stri…
The Uncertain Future of a 'New Type' of US-China Relationship
President Xi Jinping's call for a "new type of great-power relationship" in meetings in 2013 with President Obama raises important questions about the future of US-China relations. On the surface, it appeared that the two leaders were on the same page. At the June summit, Obama agreed with Xi that "working together cooperatively" and bringing US-China relations "to a new level" were sound ideas. When the G-20 countries convened at St. Petersburg …
Trouble at Sea
Trouble is again brewing in the South China Sea (SCS), where six nations compete for control over tiny atolls-the Paracel and Spratly Islands-that probably sit atop important gas and oil reserves. On the surface the dispute over sovereignty would appear to be about two kinds of claims, one based on history, the other on international law-200nm exclusive economic zones (EEZ) and territorial waters that a country may legally claim under the 1982 Un…
Obama's Japan Visit and US-Japan-China Relations
Most impartial observers of the China-Japan imbroglio over tiny islands claimed by both in the East China Sea-known in Japan as Senkaku and in China as Diaoyu-believe it has reached a dangerous point. The importance of the dispute is essentially two-fold. First, historical memory counts heavily in China-Japan relations. Despite their wide and deep economic ties in terms of trade, investment, and (at one time) Japanese development assistance, the …
Open borders
Common Security in North Korea
Research Article| June 01 2002 Common Security in North Korea: Quest for a New Paradigm in Inter-Korean Relations Mel Gurtov Mel Gurtov Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Asian Survey (2002) 42 (3): 397–418. https://doi.org/10.1525/as.2002.42.3.397 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Ge…
The United States against the Third World
Open borders
The Transformation of Socialism
South Korea's Foreign Policy and Future Security
North Korea's nuclear program. The three-stage agreement will enable North Korea to acquire light-water nuclear reactors (LWRs) and free oil in return for its freezing and dismantling of existing reactors and storage of spent nuclear fuel outside North Korea. Official U.S.-DPRK relations will gradually be established so long as North Korea fulfills its obligations. North Korea has promised to accept full international access to its existing nucle…
China's Security
This fresh appraisal of China’s military establishment in transition emphasizes the interplay of domestic and external forces. Showing how economic, technological, bureaucratic, and international factors have substantially reshaped Chinese military thinking and behavior, the authors question the popular perception of a “China threat.” Their closely reasoned analysis underscores the implications of China’s rise for its military forces and its secu…
China's Security
Chinese Foreign Policy during the Cultural Revolution . Barbara Barnouin , Yu Changgen
Common Security in North Korea
Research Article| June 01 2002 Common Security in North Korea: Quest for a New Paradigm in Inter-Korean Relations Mel Gurtov Mel Gurtov Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Asian Survey (2002) 42 (3): 397–418. https://doi.org/10.1525/as.2002.42.3.397 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Ge…
Northeast Asia Policy Under George W. Bush
IntroductionThe Bush Doctrine stipulates that unilateral action, regime change, and preemptive attack now define U.S. foreign policy. In Northeast Asia, however, the doctrine has run up against unpleasant realities that ought to be causing-but so far do not appear to have caused-its abandonment. Instead, the doctrine's new realism, embellished with strong ideological predispositions, has made the United States odd man out in Asia. This paper crit…
Reconciling Japan and China
The conflict-resolution literature offers new insights to reconciling parties in conflict. This article applies that literature, along with political-science approaches, to the seemingly intractable China-Japan rivalry. Proceeding from the standpoint that China and Japan need one another, and should manage their conflict for mutual benefit, the article suggests several steps they may take-bilaterally, in multilateral settings, and in civil societ…
From Korea to Vietnam
The wars in Korea and Vietnam were of a piece, directly related by virtue of U.S. global strategy and China's security concerns. This paper, focusing mainly on the U.S. side in these wars, argues that three characteristics of American policy had enduring meaning for the rest of the Cold War and even beyond: the official mindsets that led to U.S. involvement, the centrality of the China threat in American decision making, and the common legacy of …
Averting War in Northeast Asia
While the United States and South Korea consider whether or not to accept North Korea's call for an "unconditional" return to the Six Party Talks (6PT) or China's call for multilateral negotiations, Northeast Asia is sliding in the direction of deepening conflict that could lead to war. China-Japan relations, which had been warming since the departure of Koizumi Junichiro, and especially since the victory of the Democratic Party of Japan in 2009,…
Trouble at Sea
Trouble is again brewing in the South China Sea (SCS), where six nations compete for control over tiny atolls-the Paracel and Spratly Islands-that probably sit atop important gas and oil reserves. On the surface the dispute over sovereignty would appear to be about two kinds of claims, one based on history, the other on international law-200nm exclusive economic zones (EEZ) and territorial waters that a country may legally claim under the 1982 Un…
Obama's Japan Visit and US-Japan-China Relations
Most impartial observers of the China-Japan imbroglio over tiny islands claimed by both in the East China Sea-known in Japan as Senkaku and in China as Diaoyu-believe it has reached a dangerous point. The importance of the dispute is essentially two-fold. First, historical memory counts heavily in China-Japan relations. Despite their wide and deep economic ties in terms of trade, investment, and (at one time) Japanese development assistance, the …
Time for the U.S. to Engage North Korea
Issues: diplomacy, engagement, ngos, North Korea missile launch, nuclear tests, Northeast Asia Security Dialogue, nuclear weapons, Six-Party Talks, sunshine policy In recent weeks, North Korea has sent the usual mix of signals about its strategic intentions on the Korean peninsula. In July it carried out a ballistic missile test in the East Sea (Sea of Japan), in violation of UN resolutions. It also threatened retaliation-including a nuclear stri…
The Uncertain Future of a 'New Type' of US-China Relationship
President Xi Jinping's call for a "new type of great-power relationship" in meetings in 2013 with President Obama raises important questions about the future of US-China relations. On the surface, it appeared that the two leaders were on the same page. At the June summit, Obama agreed with Xi that "working together cooperatively" and bringing US-China relations "to a new level" were sound ideas. When the G-20 countries convened at St. Petersburg …
China's Triangle Diplomacy
Back in the days of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, the "strategic triangle" with the Soviet Union and China was the great game. The idea was to play off the two communist powers against one another, relying on their ideological warfare under Mao, deep cultural differences, and open conflict in border regions to sustain their mutual suspicions and fears of attack. Now the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak: China seems to be in charge of t…
Xi Jinping Visits Seoul
China and Korea watchers jumped to attention when it was announced that Xi Jinping would visit South Korea from July 3-4, rather than visit North Korea first. Although the trip could have been seen as reciprocating ROK President Park Geun-hye's visit to China in June 2013, the Chinese side surely was aware that the trip would be viewed abroad as a departure from standard Chinese protocol and would probably upset Kim Jong-un and his colleagues. Bu…
Rules and Rocks
The long-running, multi-party dispute over control of islets in the South China Sea (SCS) is worsening both in rhetoric and provocative activity. Meeting in late May at the Shangri-La Dialogue on regional security, US and Chinese defense officials sparred over responsibility for the increased tension, though they stopped short of issuing threats. In fact, all sides to the dispute say they want to avoid violence, prefer a diplomatic resolution, an…
The Trans-Pacific Partnership
The American people have become used to government trickery in foreign affairs-wars and interventions based on lies and falsified evidence, "national security" used to justify the whittling away of privacy, classification of documents to hide embarrassing disclosures, massaging of budget figures to mask outrageous spending on arms, and demands for new weapons when already in possession of an unmatched conventional and nuclear arsenal
Sanctions and Defiance in North Korea
North Korea has now been sanctioned five times by the United Nations Security Council for its nuclear and missile tests: resolutions 1718 (2006), 1874 (2009), 2087 (2013), 2094 (2013) and 2270 (2016). UNSC Resolution 2270 is the strongest one yet, spelling out in great detail the proscribed goods and requiring that all parties neither import them from nor export them to North Korea. Each resolution obliges the members to carry out the terms of th…
Protesting Policy and Practice in South Korea's Nuclear Energy Industry
The Fukushima nuclear disaster of March 2011 has raised serious questions about nuclear power. In our work since Fukushima, we have tried to answer two questions: What is the current status of nuclear energy in Asia? Does nuclear power have a future in East Asia? By answering those questions, we hope to contribute to the global debate about nuclear energy. To be sure, questions of such magnitude can rarely be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’.…
Diplomatic Remedies for THAAD Madness
This commentary assesses the geopolitical implications for war and peace in Northeast Asia of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense antimissile system that the US seeks to install in South Korea at a time of deep tensions in Northeast Asia
At Home and Abroad, Trump Tramples Human Rights
In January 1941, with the prospect looming of US involvement in another European war, President Franklin Roosevelt spoke of America's purpose in the world: to protect and promote "four freedoms." FDR drew a clear link between US security and the fulfillment of human rights at home. "Just as our national policy in internal affairs has been based upon a decent respect for the rights and the dignity of all of our fellow men within our gates, so our …
The Dangerous New US Consensus on China and the Future of US-China Relations
The trade war and technological competition with China are symptomatic of a much larger issue: a dangerous gridlock in US-China relations that may become permanent, with dire consequences not just for the two countries' economies but also for the global economy and quite possibly East Asia's and international security. Martin Wolf, Financial Times columnist, is right to conclude: "Across-the-board rivalry with China is becoming an organising prin…
Political science (28 works) · Law (18 works) · China (17 works) · Korean Peninsula Historical and Political Studies (10 works) · International Relations and Foreign Policy (9 works) · Economics (7 works) · Geography (7 works) · Archaeology (6 works) · Business (6 works) · History (6 works)