Japan's domestic political system is a child of the early Cold War period. In the wake of its defeat in the Second World War, the East-West political and ideological confrontation was internalized into Japan's post-war political system that took shape during the Occupation years (1945-52). The end of the Cold War was bound to have an impact on Japanese domestic politics, and since the 1990s the parameters of its political system are changing.

The Korean Peninsula remains one of the main concerns of the international community and poses a potential threat to regional security with problems relating to North Korea's nuclear issue. Moreover, the situation in the relations between North and South has worsened considerably during the recent years, basically, due to the lack of trust and confidence, as well as the contrasting ideas on the ways of reaching a solution on the nuclear issue. The relations between North and South Korea have always been characterized by official declarations about a mutual wish to achieve reunification of the two parts of Korea. However, the almost half a century of the division of the Korean Peninsula cannot be overcome only by burning national sentiment. Unification of the divided nation remains the dream of all Koreans. It may have been expected that some readjustment would be necessary.

A potential conflict in the Taiwan Strait could serve to critically undermine the stability of the region. The People´s Republic of China approximately has 900 to 1,000 missiles on alert within striking distance of Taiwan. Taiwan has continued its military build-up against China's military threat and request US arms sale to Taiwan.

Owing to both its own tradition of isolationism and to the international sanctions regime, the DPRK has had very limited contact with the policy community in the wider world. Our project seeks to push co-operation with the DPRK and necessary activities to allow North Korea to engage, in more a productive manner, with international actors. This will encourage our effort on the side of developing policy. In an effort to engage the country, ISDP has initiated a co-operative project on crisis management with the Institute for Disarmament and Peace (IDP), a think-tank under the DPRK Ministry of Foreign affairs that rotates its staff with the diplomatic service. The first step in this project was the visit of a high-level delegation from IDP to Stockholm in May 2012 for the purposes of joint research and in-depth discussion of crisis management.