Blog
RECONNECT Global: "Democratic Regress in the Contemporary World" Prof. Haggard & Prof. Kaufman
As part of RECONNECT's new Global Webinar Series "Democratic and Rule of Law Backsliding: Causes, Consequences and Prospects from around the World", in this first lecture, Prof. Haggard and Prof. Kaufman gave insights on recent developments based on their newly published book: Backsliding: Democratic Regress in the Contemporary World.
East Asia in the World by Professor Stephan Haggard and Professor David C. Kang
As part of the Scottish Centre for Korean Studies' Distinguished Lecture Series, Professor Stephan Haggard and Professor David C. Kang discuss East Asia in the World: Twelve Events That Shaped the Modern International Order, an innovative volume that provides an introduction to twelve seminal events in the international relations of East Asia prior to 1900: twelve events that everyone interested in the history of world politics should know. The East Asian historical experience provides a wealth of new and different cases, patterns, and findings that will expand horizons from the Western, Eurocentric experience. Written by an international team of historians and political scientists, these essays draw attention to the China-centered East Asian order - with its long history of dominance - and what this order might tell us about the current epoch.
The 2021 North Korea Party Congress
On January 9, the DPRK’s Permanent Mission to the UN sent out a press release reproducing a portion of a much longer report that North Korean media sources had released on the first days of the Party Congress. It appeared to contain a mildly hopeful message, taking note of the Singapore summit declaration that “assures the establishment of new DPRK-U.S. relationship.” Could the Biden administration perhaps avoid the downward spiral both Obama and Trump faced in their first years in office?
The Obama Administration and North Korea in 2009 Part 3: The Lessons of the First Year
With Joe Biden headed to the White House, North Korea watchers are speculating how the incoming administration will deal with this long-standing foreign policy irritant. One place to look for cues is to review the spate of Obama-era memoirs to outline his administration’s first year with North Korea. In Part 1 and Part 2, I detailed the early Clinton gambit on denuclearization, its swift rejection by the North Koreans in their satellite launch of April and the nuclear test in May, and the passage of UNSC Resolution 1874. In this post, I consider the effort to restart talks. This is the third in a three-part series.
The Obama Administration and North Korea in 2009 Part 2: Negotiating Multilateral Sanctions
With Joe Biden headed to the White House, North Korea watchers are speculating how the incoming administration will deal with this long-standing foreign policy irritant. One place to look for cues is to review the spate of Obama-era memoirs on his administration’s first year with North Korea. In a previous post, I detailed the early Clinton gambit on denuclearization and its swift rejection by the North Koreans in their satellite launch of April. This is the second in a three part series.
The Obama Administration and North Korea in 2009 Part 1: Satellite Launch Hardens Positions
With Joe Biden headed to the White House, North Korea watchers are speculating how the incoming administration will deal with this long-standing foreign policy irritant. One place to look for cues: how Obama’s first year with Kim Jong Il panned out. In doing so, we now have the advantage of several new memoirs—from Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes and from President Barack Obama himself—in addition to others, such as those by Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates and Jeff Bader that came out earlier. Memoirs—like journalism—are first drafts of history, capturing how the principles viewed the problem. Equally if not more interesting are their silences: the way other issues seemed in retrospect more pressing and consequential, particularly for the president. Obama’s account of his first year in office, for example, gives little attention to North Korea after the satellite launch in April. Today, I start with the administration’s initial approach and how it was dashed by that test.
Will There Always Be War on the Korean Peninsula?
The sad fact is that North Korea has become quite comfortable with its nuclear weapons.
North Korean Peace Proposals: A Long-run View
Over the last thirty years, North Korea has periodically made reference to the importance of reaching a “peace agreement” or negotiating a “peace regime.” Most recently, The Panmunjom declaration suggested the parties might exchange denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula for a peace agreement (평화협정). The historic Trump-Kim summit made reference to “building a lasting and stable peace regime (평화체제) on the Korean Peninsula”; indeed the reference to a peace regime appeared in the summit document even before mention of denuclearization.
Webinar on the succession in North Korea with Michael Madden, Joseph Wright and Daniel Pinkston (June 2020)
When Kim Jong Un disappeared from public view recently, there was rampant speculation of what would occur were he to die or become incapacitated. His return to the scene does not answer the question. On this panel, we tap some top analysts of the North Korean political system to discuss what we know about the top leadership, the political system more generally and the prospects for political change.
Webinar on Todd Henry’s Queer Korea (June 2020)
“Queer” Koreans have historically been ignored, minimized and erased in narratives of their modern nation. This interdisciplinary book project—just published in the U.S. and soon to be translated into Korean—challenges such marginalization through critical analyses of non-normative sexuality and gender variance in Korea. Chapters range over a variety of topics, from shamanic rituals during the colonial era and B-grade comedy films under Cold War dictatorship to toxic masculinity in today’s South Korean military and transgender confrontations with the resident registration system. Todd Henry (editor and author) explained how the project arose and some of its key findings. Jin-kyung Lee (discussant) elaborated on the significance of the volume and its reception, to be followed by questions and answers.