The sources of North Korean conduct

In 1947 George F. Kennan published the famous “X” article in the journal Foreign Affairs, outlining his containment doctrine and his long-term prognosis for the Soviet Union. Professor Bruce Cumings will do the same for North Korea, and ask whether with its new nuclear capabilities, the North can also be contained over the long term

Pacific Ascendancy: Or, A Non-Atlanticist View of the American Position in the World

Streaming video requires RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, or Flash Player to view.Dominion From Sea to Sea is a non-Atlanticist account of America's position in the world over the last 150 years, one that sees the U.S. as the only advanced industrial power with long Atlantic and Pacific coastlines — a tremendous comparative advantage. It emphasizes the importance of American encounters with people of color on the continent -- Mexico in the 1840s, the Philippines in the years 1898-1903, and East Asia since 1941 -- in exploring the history of unilateralism and how this experience shaped a very different encounter with the world than did Atlanticism. The book tries to bridge the academic boundary between Western history and our Pacific history, which is rarely done in the literature, and also argues for the central important of Western high-tech industries in the dominant American position in the world since 1941. It is thus a mix of history and political economy.Ohio State University. Mershon Center for International Security StudiesEvent Web page, streaming video, event photo

America in East Asia: Symposium on American Cultural Influences in China, Japan, and Korea

The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.Ohio State University. Mershon Center for International Security StudiesOhio State University. East Asian Studies CenterOhio State University. Institute for Chinese StudiesOhio State University. Institute for Japanese StudiesJapan-America Society of Central OhioOhio State University. Dept. of East Asian Languages and LiteraturesEvent webpage, handou

In another time and place: The Handmaiden as an adaptation

This article considers the South Korean auteur director Park Chan-wook’s latest film The Handmaiden, which is the film adaptation of British writer Sarah Waters’s third novel Fingersmith. Transporting the story of love and deception from Victorian England to 1930s Korea under Japanese colonial rule, the film offers a compelling case of transnational or cross-cultural adaptation. In the process of cultural relocation, the film gives prominence to the ethnic identities and hierarchies in colonial Korea, and in recounting the unfolding lesbian love story between a petty-thief-disguised-as-maid and a noble lady, the film provides a spectacular, visual ‘translation’ of the novel’s approach to the story of same-sex desire. Despite all the changes the film makes to the original novel, the author Waters claims that the film is ‘faithful’ to her work. Taking her comments as a framework, the article explores the ways in which the film carries over the transgressive allure of the original story, while addressing the issues of history and identity in another time and place

Going it alone? North Korea’s adaptability as a small power in a changing world

This article uses small states scholarship to map North Korea’s evolution from a post-colonial small state to a system-influencing state due to its nuclear weapons programme. The framework allows for contributions to: (1) The DPRK literature which in some parts has suggested the future collapse of the state, (2) The small states literature that suggests they can only survive if they integrate larger political and/or economic units, (3) The mainstream IR literature and its dominant realist streak that considers great powers and their will as the main drivers in contemporary world politics