Category: Past Events

Note: This event is open to the public and on the record.

Speakers

Professor Yong-sup Han is a Professor at the Korea National Defense University (KNDU). His vast academic experience includes serving as the President of Korea Nuclear Policy Society (2012-15), Vice President of KNDU (2010-12), Director General of Research Institute for National Security Affairs, KNDU (2005-08), and President of Korea Peace Research Association (2007-10). He was Visiting Fellow to the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI); Visiting Professor of Fudan University in Shanghai China (2015.8-2016.2); Visiting Professor of China Foreign Affairs University (2009.1-2009.6); and Visiting Fellow to the U.S. RAND Corporation (1999-2000). He also served as Special Assistant to the South Korean Minister of National Defense (1993), and Senior Staff Member to the South-North Joint Nuclear Control Commission (1991-92). He earned his BA and MA in political science from Seoul National University (1978 and 1982), Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University (1987), and Ph.D. in Public Policy from the RAND Graduate School (1991).

Professor Young-jun Kim is a Professor of the National Security College at the Korea National Defense University (KNDU). He is now a member of National Security Advisory Board for the Republic of Korea President’s Office (the Blue House). His recent publications include Origins of the North Korean Garrison State: People’s Army and the Korean War at Routledge (2017). At the Prime Minister’s Office, he is an official reviewer of the Government Performance Review on Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Unification. He is a member of the ROK-US Combined Forces Commander’s Strategic Shaping Board (CSSB). He is Senior Research Fellow at the U.S. Army’s Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO) at Fort Leavenworth. He is a policy advisor on North Korean issues for the National Security Office of the ROK President’s Office, the National Assembly, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Ministry of National Defense (MND), Ministry of Unification, National Intelligence Service, the Joint Chief of Staff and the ROK-US Combined Forces Command. He is a managing editor of the new journal “The Korean Journal of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Energy” sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the General-Director for the Korea Nuclear Policy Society, Korea International Studies Association and Korea Defense Policy Association.

Discussant

Joanna Spear is an Associate Professor of International Affairs and Director of the FAO Regional Sustainment Initiative. She previously was the Director of the Elliott School’s Security Policy Studies Program and the Founding Director of the National Security Studies Program, an executive education program serving the needs of the U.S. Department of Defense and other federal agencies. Dr. Spear is also an Associate Fellow at Chatham House in London. Before joining GW, Dr. Spear was Director of the Graduate Research Programme and a Senior Lecturer at the Department of War Studies, King’s College, London. In addition, she was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a Visiting Scholar at the Brookings Institution.

Moderator

Yonho Kim is Associate Research Professor of Practice and Associate Director of GW Institute for Korean Studies. He specializes in North Korea’s mobile telecommunications and U.S. policy towards North Korea. Kim is the author of North Korea’s Mobile Telecommunications and Private Transportation Services in the Kim Jong-un Era (2019) and Cell Phones in North Korea: Has North Korea Entered the Telecommunications Revolution? (2014). His research findings were covered by various media outlets, including Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Yonhap News, and Libération. Prior to joining GWIKS, he extensively interacted with the Washington policy circle on the Korean peninsula as Senior Researcher of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Senior Reporter for Voice of America’s Korean Service, and Assistant Director of the Atlantic Council’s Program on Korea in Transition. He holds a B.A. and M.A. in International Relations from Seoul National University, and an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Speaker

Ambassador Yun, recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts on relations with North Korea, as well as broader U.S.-East Asia policy, most recently served as Special Representative for North Korea Policy. Currently, he is Senior Advisor with The Asia Group, a DC-based strategic consulting firm, and the U.S. Institute of Peace, an independent and non-partisan federal institute working on peace and reconciliation issues throughout the globe. He is also a Global Affairs Commentator for the CNN. Yun’s 33-year diplomatic career has been marked by his commitment to face-to-face engagement as the best avenue for resolving conflict and advancing cross-border cooperation. As Special Representative on North Korea from 2016 to 2018, Ambassador Yun led the U.S. efforts to align regional powers behind a united policy to denuclearize North Korea. He was instrumental in reopening the “New York channel,” a direct communication line with officials from Pyongyang. As Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs (2011-2013), Yun led efforts to normalize diplomatic relations with Myanmar. Yun also served as Ambassador to Malaysia (2013-16). Before joining the Foreign Service, Yun was a senior economist for Data Resources, Inc., in Lexington, Massachusetts. He holds a M. Phil. degree from the London School of Economics and a BS from the University of Wales.

Welcoming Remarks

Jisoo M. Kim is Korea Foundation Associate Professor of History, International Affairs, and East Asian Languages and Literatures and Director of the Institute for Korean Studies at GW. She received her Ph.D. in Korean History from Columbia University. She is a specialist in gender and legal history of early modern Korea. Her broader research interests include gender and sexuality, crime and justice, forensic medicine, literary representations of the law, history of emotions, vernacular, and gender writing. She is the author of The Emotions of Justice: Gender, Status, and Legal Performance in Chosŏn Korea (University of Washington Press, 2015), which was awarded the 2017 James Palais Prize of the Association for Asian Studies. She is also the co-editor of The Great East Asian War and the Birth of the Korean Nation by JaHyun Kim Haboush (Columbia University Press, 2016). She is currently working on two book projects titled Suspicious Deaths: Forensic Medicine, Dead Bodies, and Criminal Justice in Chosŏn Korea and Sexual Desire and Gendered Subjects: Decriminalization of Adultery Law in Korean History.

Moderator

Yonho Kim is Associate Research Professor of Practice and Associate Director of GW Institute for Korean Studies. He specializes in North Korea’s mobile telecommunications and U.S. policy towards North Korea. Kim is the author of North Korea’s Mobile Telecommunications and Private Transportation Services in the Kim Jong-un Era (2019) and Cell Phones in North Korea: Has North Korea Entered the Telecommunications Revolution? (2014). His research findings were covered by various media outlets, including Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Yonhap News, and Libération. Prior to joining GWIKS, he extensively interacted with the Washington policy circle on the Korean peninsula as Senior Researcher of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Senior Reporter for Voice of America’s Korean Service, and Assistant Director of the Atlantic Council’s Program on Korea in Transition. He holds a B.A. and M.A. in International Relations from Seoul National University, and an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

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Note: This event is free and open to the public. This event is to support the launch of Professor Ezra F. Vogel’s book entitled China and Japan: Facing History.

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Professor Andrew Krieger, senior adjunct professor at Montgomery College in Rockville, MD; teaches courses in international relations, sociology, and American government.

Speakers

Heung-Kyu Kim is the founder and Director of China Policy Institute and professor in the department of political science at Ajou University, South Korea. He also served as a professor at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His current assignments include Director of Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Presidential Commission on Policy-Planning, Team Leader of Security and Defense in the Presidential Task Force of Future Vision 2045, a board member of the National Security Council and a board member of National Defense Reform Commission, Ministry of National Defense. Kim has written more than 300 articles, books, and policy papers regarding Chinese politics and foreign policy, and security issues in Northeast Asia. They include China and the U.S.-ROK Alliance: Promoting a Trilateral Dialogue (CFR, 2017), Enemy, Homager or Equal Partner?: Evolving Korea-China Relations (2012), From a Buffer Zone to a Strategic Burden: Evolving Sino-North Korea Relations during Hu Jintao Era (2010). His book China’s Central-Local Relations and Decision-Making received an award for Excellency of the Year by the Ministry of Culture in 2008. He also received the NEAR Foundation Academic prize of the year in the area of foreign policy and security in 2014. Kim received his BA and MA in international relations from Seoul National University, South Korea, and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Michigan.

Scott A. Snyder is a senior fellow for Korea studies and director of the program on U.S.-Korea policy at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). His program examines South Korea’s efforts to contribute on the international stage; its potential influence and contributions as a middle power in East Asia; and the peninsular, regional, and global implications of North Korean instability. Mr. Snyder is the author of South Korea at the Crossroads: Autonomy and Alliance in an Era of Rival Powers (January 2018) and coauthor of The Japan-South Korea Identity Clash: East Asian Security and the United States (May 2015) with Brad Glosserman. He is also the coeditor of North Korea in Transition: Politics, Economy, and Society (October 2012), and the editor of Global Korea: South Korea’s Contributions to International Security (October 2012) and The U.S.-South Korea Alliance: Meeting New Security Challenges (March 2012). Mr. Snyder served as the project director for CFR’s Independent Task Force on policy toward the Korean Peninsula. He currently writes for the blog Asia Unbound.

Jiyong Zheng currently serves as Professor and Director at the Center for Korean Studies, Fudan University, and Secretary-General of Shanghai Institute of Korean Studies. Zheng Jiyong joined the army and studied at the School of Foreign Languages, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. In 1991, he was assigned to research the military and diplomacy of the Korean Peninsula. In 2009, he retired from the army and joined Fudan University. He received his Doctoral Degree at Fudan University and has had post-doctoral experiences at IFES, Kyungnam University, ROK(2009/09-2010/12) and in Kim Il Sung University, DPRK(2014/07-11), and was a visiting scholar in Seoul National University, ROK(2016/09-2017/09), and is currently a Visiting Scholar in The Henry L. Stimson Center. His research focuses on domestic politics in the two Koreas, and on bilateral and multilateral relations related to the Korean peninsula, and policy-making process in DPRK, China, and ROK. He is the author and co-author of more than 100 scholarly articles and author or editor of more than 10 books, including ROK’s Political Party Systems (2008), ROK’s Parliamentary Politics (2017), North Korea: Peace? Nuclear War? (2019), The “Conflict-Reconciliation” Cycle on the Korean Peninsula: A Chinese Perspective (2012), and Road Map to a Korean Peninsula Peace Regime: A Chinese Perspective (2015).

Moderator

Jisoo M. Kim is Korea Foundation Associate Professor of History, International Affairs, and East Asian Languages and Literatures and Director of the Institute for Korean Studies at GW. She received her Ph.D. in Korean History from Columbia University. She is a specialist in gender and legal history of early modern Korea. Her broader research interests include gender and sexuality, crime and justice, forensic medicine, literary representations of the law, history of emotions, vernacular, and gender writing. She is the author of The Emotions of Justice: Gender, Status, and Legal Performance in Chosŏn Korea (University of Washington Press, 2015), which was awarded the 2017 James Palais Prize of the Association for Asian Studies. She is also the co-editor of The Great East Asian War and the Birth of the Korean Nation by JaHyun Kim Haboush (Columbia University Press, 2016). She is currently working on two book projects titled Suspicious Deaths: Forensic Medicine, Dead Bodies, and Criminal Justice in Chosŏn Korea and Sexual Desire and Gendered Subjects: Decriminalization of Adultery Law in Korean History.

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Abstract

Is the process of state building a unilateral, national venture, or is it something more collaborative, taking place in the interstices between adjoining countries? To answer this question, this book takes a comparative look at the state building process along China, Myanmar, and Thailand’s common borderland area. It shows that the variations in state building among these neighboring countries are the result of an interactive process that occurs across national boundaries. 

Departing from existing approaches that look at such processes from the angle of singular, bounded territorial states, the book argues that a more fruitful method is to examine how state and nation building in one country can influence, and be influenced by, the same processes across borders. It argues that the success or failure of one country’s state building is a process that extends beyond domestic factors such as war preparation, political institutions, and geographic and demographic variables. Rather, it shows that we should conceptualize state building as an interactive process heavily influenced by a “neighborhood effect.” Furthermore, the book moves beyond the academic boundaries that divide arbitrarily China studies and Southeast Asian studies by providing an analysis that ties the state and nation building processes in China with those of Southeast Asia.

Note: This event is free and open to the public. This event is to support the launch of Enze Han’s book entitled Asymmetrical Neighbors: Borderland State Building between China and Southeast Asia.

Enze Han is an Associate Professor at the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong. His research interests include ethnic politics in China, China’s relations with Southeast Asia, and the politics of state formation in the borderland area between China, Myanmar and Thailand. Previously he was Senior Lecturer at the Department of Politics and International Studies at SOAS, University of London. His research has been supported by the Leverhulme Research Fellowship, and British Council/Newton Fund. During 2015-2016, he was a Friends Founders’ Circle Member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, USA. He is the author of Asymmetrical Neighbours: Borderland State Building between China and Southeast Asia (Oxford University Press, 2019), and Contestation and Adaptation: The Politics of National Identity in China (Oxford University Press, 2013). 

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Michael Yahuda is a Professor Emeritus of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London, where he served from 1973 to 2003. Since then he has been a visiting scholar at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, the Elliott School, George Washington University, except for 2005-2006 when he was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He has been a Visiting Research Fellow at the Australian National University 1976 and a Visiting Professor at the University of Adelaide, (South Australia) 1981-83 and the University of Michigan, 1985-1986. He has also been a Guest Scholar, 1988 and Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center Washington, DC, 2011-2012 and the Fairbank Center for East Asian Studies, Harvard, 2005. He was a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Singaporean Institute for South East Asian Studies (2005) and at the Chinese Foreign Affairs University, Beijing (Autumn 2007). He has acted as an adviser to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and as a consultant to organizations in London and Singapore. His main fields of interest are China’s politics, foreign policy and the international relations of the Asia Pacific. He enjoys an international reputation as a specialist on the politics of East Asia. He has published ten books and more than 200 articles and chapters in books. His latest book is The International Politics of the Asia-Pacific (4th and completely revised edition, 2019).

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