This article analyzes South Korea’s new National Security Strategy (NSS) released in June 2023 under President Yoon Suk-yeol. The study situates the NSS in the context of rapidly changing regional and global geopolitics, examining the factors driving the emergence of this new strategy. The article primarily uses secondary document analysis methods to identify the content of the NSS; the research clarifies significant changes in South Korea’s approach to national, regional, and global security issues. The research results not only provide insights into South Korea’s national security strategy but also contribute to a better understanding of the geopolitical dynamics reshaping the regional order.

The main purpose of this study is to examine the impact of credit risk management on profitability of commercial banks in Vietnam. While the existing literature emphasizes the necessity for a more in-depth study and additional empirical evidence to elucidate intricate relationships between market dynamics and credit risk, particularly in the context of commercial banks in Southeast Asia, there remains a gap in comprehensive studies, with a specific focus on Vietnam. The secondary data was collected from 20 commercial banks from the country for the period of 11 years, from 2012 to 2022. The study used non-performing loans ratio (NPLR), capital adequacy ratio (CAR) as well as loan-loss provision ratio (LLPR) as proxies of credit risk while the financial performance is measured by return on equity (ROE). Moreover, the bank's characteristics, such as its size (SIZE), the macroeconomic inflation rate (INF), and a dummy variable that looks at how ownership type (OWN) affects the bank's profitability are all applied to quantify the independent variables. The model does not exhibit the multicollinearity issue, according to the mean Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) data. The regression results reveal that SIZE, CAR and INF variables have a significant positive effect on ROE, while the NPLR variable has an opposite significant effect on ROE. Nevertheless, there is no connection between the ROE-measured financial performance of commercial banks and the OWN or LLPR variables. This offers further valuable insights to bankers and policy makers in credit risk management of commercial banks in Vietnam to enhance the stability of the Vietnamese banking system.

English is one of the keys to successful globalization; therefore, every country develops own English teaching policy. Teaching English in Asia is a very common issue ruled and supported by the government. This article is a contrastive study on different English policies in such Southeast and East Asian countries as China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The contrastive analysis focused on such aspects as school year of implementing English as required subject, teaching hours of English, teacher’s training, use of local and foreign teachers, teaching methods and materials, funding, etc. The contrastive study among countries mentioned above evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of certain English teaching policies. The positive results of one country can be borrowed and adapted by another country considering its cultural, political, economic or social features. On the other hand, the failures of one country’s English teaching policy can be considered and avoided by another country’s planning on English teaching policy.