Letter from the Editors

Welcome to the January 2022 issue of The Diplomat Magazine and welcome to 2022!

A new year, a new outlook: As is tradition, we’ve gathered Diplomat authors from across Asia to help us manage our expectations for the year to come. In our cover story you’ll find our authors, organized by country or region, highlighting three events or trends to watch in the next year. These aren’t meant to be predictive but rather serve as an insightful heads-up for the hot topics of 2022. From elections to diplomatic challenges to the continuing grip of the pandemic, this is what to pay attention to in the new year.

Then we’ll take a look back at the last decade for Kim Jong Un. When the North Korean leader took over upon his father’s death in December 2011, he faced an array of assumptions, not the least of which being that he wasn’t ready to rule the hermit kingdom. But as Rachel Minyoung Lee, a nonresident fellow with the Stimson Center’s 38 North, explains, Kim “has emerged as a bold, confident leader who has managed to rise to the same ranks as his forefathers, despite myriad vicissitudes.” Lee charts Kim’s decade in power, paying close attention to his leadership style, which builds on that of his grandfather more than his father.

Next, we consider the foreign policy of the United States one year into the administration of Joe Biden – or, alternatively, one year after the end of the Donald Trump administration. Van Jackson, a specialist in Asian foreign policy and U.S. national security policy, notes that Biden has replaced Trump’s “grievance politics and erraticism” with “decency and respect toward allies and partners.” But much of the change in U.S. Asia policy has been stylistic – the substance remains the same in areas from China and North Korea to free trade ambivalence and democratic hypocrisy.

Finally, Joe Buckley, an expert on Vietnamese labor politics with a Ph.D. from SOAS, gets down into the weeds of Vietnam’s labor reforms. Signing on to two landmark trade deals – the CPTPP and its free trade agreement with the EU – committed Hanoi to reworking its labor policies, most notably by providing for free association on the part of workers. But, as Buckley illustrates, the claim that Vietnam now allows workers to form independent labor unions has been greatly exaggerated.

We hope you enjoy these stories, and the many more in the following pages. And on behalf of The Diplomat, thank you for your continued support as we head into another year.