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Professor Easley argues that top-down diplomacy is useful for focusing efforts toward “deliverables,” and can provide green lights for working-level cooperation and coordination with third countries.  But summits alone can only reach so far beyond domestic political constraints and only temporarily bridge gaps between national interests.
“The Limitations of Summits around the Korean Peninsula,” Asia Pacific Bulletin, No. 451, January 2019; https://www.eastwestcenter.org/publications/the-limitations-summits-around-the-korean-peninsula.

About Experts

Leif-Eric Easley
Leif-Eric Easley

Visiting Research Fellow

Dr. Leif-Eric EASLEY is a visiting research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. Dr. Easley is also an associate professor of International Studies at Ewha Womans University where he teaches international security and political economics. His research interests include contested national identities and changing levels of trust in the bilateral security relationships of Northeast Asia. He was the Northeast Asian History Fellow at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) at Stanford University. He was also a visiting scholar at Yonsei University and the University of Southern California’s Korean Studies Institute. He is actively involved in US-Asia dialogues (Track II diplomacy) with the Asan Institute and the Pacific Forum-Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Dr. Easley received his B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in government from Harvard University.