For the fourth time, the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy and Brookings Institution are collaborating to hold a conference on future security issues that the Republic of Korea and United States, as two close allies, will face in East Asia. This is a partnership that The Brookings Institution holds in high regard. We are deeply grateful of General Lee Sanghee for his leadership and his staff for their outstanding and essential support.

Our first three conferences focused on the future of the Korean Peninsula. This focus was highly appropriate because there are many variables at play and unknowns to be considered. Bringing together a group of very smart people to talk about the Peninsula made a lot of sense. The first conference examined ROK-U.S. relations at the point that President Park was about to take office and President Obama began his second term. The second conference looked at how our two governments should cooperate in the diplomatic and security spheres for the unification of Korea. The third conference assessed the prospects for regional cooperation to preserve regional stability in the context of Korean unification, with the United States as the anchor. The results of these three conferences were very fruitful.