By C. Raja Mohan<\/p>\n
What India\u2019s and South Korea\u2019s dealings with Washington tell us about real and imagined U.S. peace initiatives in Asia.<\/p>\n
Although there are striking similarities between the geopolitics of the Indian subcontinent and the Korean Peninsula, the international relations community rarely pays attention to their parallel trajectories. Recent events provide a useful starting point for a comparison: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s troubled dealings with U.S. President Donald Trump contrast sharply with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung\u2019s smoother handling of the White House\u2019s real and imagined peace diplomacy during his visit to Washington last month. Modi\u2019s difficulties and Lee\u2019s successes also offer insights into the prospects for Trump\u2019s peace initiatives in Asia.<\/p>\n
In the 1940s, the subcontinent and the Korean Peninsula were both partitioned\u2014under very different circumstances but with similarly lasting consequences. These divisions created two of the world\u2019s most intractable conflicts: between India and Pakistan and between North and South Korea. The proliferation of nuclear weapons in both regions by the 1990s elevated them into major security concerns for Washington and the world.<\/p>\n
Whereas the United States played a direct role in Korea\u2019s division and has been deeply engaged in the peninsula\u2019s security ever since, its role in South Asia was inherited from Britain and has always been less direct, if enduring. The rigidity of the Korean order was codified in Washington\u2019s alliance with Seoul. In South Asia, by contrast, the United States kept ties with both India and Pakistan.<\/p>\n