Joel Atkinson

Black and white photo of the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

'Outsourcing anti-dependency: Brazil’s fraught embedded-autonomy approach to China' 🌟

New Review of International Studies article and video abstract OUT NOW 🚨
By Rute Ester Brasileiro da Silva co-authored with Joel Atkinson 🎉

Read and watch here! 👉 https://ow.ly/vovQ50XB999

Its strategy involves a major military buildup combined with various carrots and sticks to keep opposition to its goals divided and ineffectual."

"In many ways THAAD and Takaichi are two chapters in the same ongoing episode. Beijing is dissatisfied with the East Asian status quo -- U.S. alliances and forces and China's own unrealized territorial ambitions, especially regarding Taiwan...

South Korea's THAAD pain shows what Takaichi can expect from China Beijing pressure campaign on Seoul provides an object lesson for Japan's new PM

Wrote something on South Korea's 2016-2017 THAAD troubles with Beijing and the ongoing episode over Japanese Prime Minster Takaichi's Taiwan comment
asia.nikkei.com/opinion/sout...

"...many in Taiwan quite reasonably expect the Lee Administration will cooperate substantively with China at Taiwan’s expense. But the reality is... here in Seoul, the secular trend is for relations to continue to worsen even with these periodic cycles of warming."

Wrote something on the recent US-China-South Korea summitry and implications for Taiwan for Taiwan's Prospect Foundation
www.pf.org.tw/tw/pfch/13-1...

I have a new article out with co-author Rute Ester Brasileiro da Silva on Brazil-China relations in Review of International Studies. It’s open access so free to read. You can access it here: doi.org/10.1017/S026...

Operation Neon: RCAF members tracking North Korean ships suspected of UN violations | Watch News Videos Online Watch Operation Neon: RCAF members tracking North Korean ships suspected of UN violations Video Online, on GlobalNews.ca

“North Korea is actively enhancing its nuclear and missile capabilities. It’s opening new enrichment facilities, new rocket engines... nuclear-capable destroyers,” I explained in a recent @globalnews.ca interview with @jeffsemple.bsky.social that appears in their vivid report on Operation NEON.

I have a new article out with co-author Rute Ester Brasileiro da Silva on Brazil-China relations in Review of International Studies. It’s open access so free to read. You can access it here: doi.org/10.1017/S026...

Logo for "Review of International Studies" featuring a partial image of the moon in the background with the text "#OpenAccess" on the bottom right.

#OpenAccess from @risjnl.bsky.social -

Outsourcing anti-dependency: Brazil’s fraught embedded-autonomy approach to China - https://cup.org/4o18uEW

- @joelatkinson.bsky.social & Rute Ester Brasileiro da Silva

#FirstView

economic and ontological security gains, played a central role in Brazil’s accommodation of China’s preferences. To borrow Lula’s words, ‘the Chinese turned the tables’.”

power status through BRICS
We attribute this disconnect to Brazil’s deeply rooted narrative of embedded autonomy. Brazil reached out in solidarity to build an international regime with China. This ‘outsourcing’ of antidependency, with its expectations that China would provide Brazil with outsized...

has likely contributed to Brazil’s de-industrialisation and dependency. Nevertheless, the perception persists that increased Chinese trade and investment is beneficial, despite its reproduction of the colonial centre-periphery relationship, and that the country is rising alongside China to major...

My new article with Review of International Studies on Brazil-China relations is now online open access: “There is a paradox at the core of Brazil’s partnership with China: despite aiming to advance industry, technology, autonomy, and national prestige, the relationship...
doi.org/10.1017/S026...

Call for submissions for The Journal of East Asian Affairs @joeaa.bsky.social 38/2 (Spring 2026). Submissions are on rolling basis, but guaranteed consideration for next issue, if received by January 1
www.inss.re.kr/en/aboutus/P...

The new issue of the Journal of East Asian Affairs @JOEAA_INSS is out, the English-language journal of South Korea’s Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS). (I am executive editor, with Mason Richey as editor-in-chief)
www.inss.re.kr/en/publicati...

Most newsworthy thing coming out of APEC and it's not even close

Feeling confident? Think again — you’re probably wrong. A study finds that overconfidence by many national security experts “was so extreme that it essentially canceled out the knowledge that these individuals possessed.”

Feeling confident? Think again — you’re probably wrong. www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2...

The full response they are selecting is "I understand the Trump administration's action as an unavoidable step by the immigration enforcement authorities"

If you want to know how Koreans are reacting to the immigration raid at the battery plant in Georgia, a recent poll has 59.2% responding “I am greatly disappointed in the Trump administration” and 30.7% responding “I understand the Trump administration’s measures”
www.realmeter.net/%eb%a6%ac%ec...

How a Top Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission Into North Korea Fell Apart

I'm stunned by this. In 2019 SEALs killed 2-3 North Korean civilians diving for shellfish and now it's in the NYT
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/u...

In June 1983, Xi Zhongxun, the father of Xi Jinping, hosted Kim Jong-il, the father of Kim Jong-un, in Beijing. They watched a performance by Peng Liyuan, who years later would marry Xi Jinping.

Kim Jong Un's daughter, Ju-ae, has apparently accompanied him on the visit to Beijing

N. Korea publicly announces leader's plan to attend China's Sept. military parade | Yonhap News Agency SEOUL, Aug. 29 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Friday publicly announced leader Kim Jong-un&apo...

N. Korea publicly announces leader's plan to attend China's Sept. military parade | Yonhap News Agency en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN2025...

Asking if students have done the readings

Ah, the customary and highly symbolic presidential exchange of MAGA hats
www.koreatimes.co.kr/photos/photo...

Trump eyes new DMZ meeting with Kim Jong-un Trump eyes new DMZ meeting with Kim Jong-un Trump presses for US base control; Lee clarifies probe did not involve American forces, says Seoul–Tokyo rift has eased

Very colorful Lee and Trump Q&A
www.chosun.com/english/nati...

This is pretty dark stuff from Lankov: "achieving success in nuclear development will be difficult. But if it does not succeed, I doubt whether the Republic of Korea will have a long-term future"
m.news.nate.com/view/2025082...

Kim Jong-un issues inter-Korean policy rejecting Seoul’s olive branch North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Tuesday conveyed his inter-Korean policy plan through his sister Kim Yo-jong, who handed it down during a meeting with key Fo

Lim Eul-chul, Kyungnam University: "North Korea is seeking to push the Lee Jae Myung administration into making a more drastic shift...by exerting maximum pressure...The key question is whether...[Lee-Trump summit] will show...greater diplomatic autonomy vis-a-vis the US”

Notes from Central Taiwan: Subsidies at root of Taiwan’s migrant fishers abuses - Taipei Times Bringing Taiwan to the World and the World to Taiwan

Important piece on the abuse of migrant fishers in Taiwan by @michaelturton.bsky.social, who argues that the government has the power to do something about it—if they wanted to.