Sustaining Trilateralism: People-to-People Diplomacy and the Future of US-ROK-Japan Relations
A Public Panel and Closed-Door Dialogue on U.S.-ROK-Japan Trilateral Public Diplomacy
Join the Center for International Affairs and World Cultures’ Indo-Pacific Minilateral Cooperation Ideas Lab for an event on US-ROK-Japan trilateral relations in partnership with the Fletcher School at Tufts University’s Asia Forum and Korea Working Group, the Harvard Kennedy School’s Korea Caucus and Japan Caucus, and TogetherWeTri.
The United States, South Korea, and Japan trilateral partnership has received growing policy attention in recent years, especially since the August 18, 2023, Camp David summit, which helped institutionalize deeper three-way coordination on security, economic security, and regional strategy. However, public understanding of the partnership, and what it means at a human level, remains less developed than elite-level engagement. In all three countries, sustaining trilateral cooperation will require more than managing its institutional architecture. It will also require building public trust, social ties, and a shared sense of purpose that can give the partnership long-term resilience. By bringing together practitioners, scholars, and civil society voices, this panel explores what trilateral cooperation looks like beyond summit statements and official frameworks, and what public diplomacy and people-to-people exchanges can add that formal policy mechanisms alone cannot.
Following the public panel, a small group of practitioners, scholars, and graduate students from Fletcher, HKS, and affiliated institutions will convene for a candid, off-the-record, closed-door working group discussion on U.S.-ROK-Japan trilateral cooperation [Trilateral Cooperation in Practice: A Working Group Discussion on U.S.-ROK-Japan People-to-People Diplomacy]. Topics will include the durability of the trilateral partnership under the current U.S. policy environment, the gap between elite frameworks and public awareness, areas of opportunity and emerging challenges,
Moderated by:
Deborah Jeong (Tufts University)
Panelists:
Matthew F. Fleming (Northeastern University)
Keita Menjo (Harvard University)
Byeongkyu Jun (Harvard University)
