Analysis & Opinions - The National Interest

America Shouldn't Remove Troops from South Korea

| June 09, 2018

Using U.S. troop levels in the South as a bargaining chip with the North would impair fundamental and overriding American strategic interests.

While there is a need for the United States to assure its allies of its commitment to their security, using troop levels as a bargaining chip with the North would do the opposite. It would exacerbate U.S. allies' existing fears about American reliability and could well encourage them, much as Manila has done, to increasingly hedge against the possibility of abandonment by accommodating Chinese interests. For this reason, there can be little doubt that in their meetings over the past couple of months , Chinese President Xi Jinping has impressed on Kim the importance of negotiating down U.S. force levels in the South....

For more information on this publication: Belfer Communications Office
For Academic Citation: Taffer, Andrew.“America Shouldn't Remove Troops from South Korea.” The National Interest, June 9, 2018.

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