Conn Hallinan on 'Dangerous Seas: North Korea, China and the U.S.'

The situation with regard to North Korea is once again approaching powder-keg level as various members of the Donald Trump White House continue to match the rhetoric of that country's President, Kim Jong Un. While Kim's choice words even moreso than usual include a threat to use nuclear weapons, from the Trump administration the more subtle but all-too-familiar six-word phrase "all options are on the table" has seemingly daily found its way into news reports. What we don't really hear are ways to address the situation with diplomacy.

Meanwhile, the elephant in the room that we can now see and hear is China, which the world hopes can help rein in North Korea and de-escalate the growing crisis - but might also have some ideas about how to play this tense drama to its own advantage on the world stage. Regardless of what that means in terms of the military and economic "Asia Pivot" by the U.S., clearly we are watching a dangerous game whose participants continue to raise the stakes.

On Sunday, May 21, local longtime journalist and foreign policy analyst Dr. Conn Hallinan will address this evolving situation in a talk entitled "Dangerous Seas: North Korea, China and the U.S." This is yet another topic the discussion of which could sound quite different on the night of the talk than it does at this moment. Dr. Hallinan will in any case bring his studied take on U.S. (and other) foreign affairs, with comments on this particular one and the hope of avoiding a very undesirable outcome in the region.

Now retired, Conn Hallinan has long studied issues related to arms control and disarmament, with a journalism career spanned 40 years. He ran the journalism program at UC Santa Cruz for 23 years, and owns an award from Project Censored. He also authors a blog, "Dispatches from the Edge", consisting of a wide variety of foreign policy-related topics.

On May 21 we will be honored to have Dr. Hallinan on hand to discuss the ever-changing situation with North Korea.

Free, contributions welcome.