EVENTS

Abstract

The aim of this talk is twofold: first, it is to chronologically review past East Asian (international) systems and Korea’s place and interaction with the systems in the context of international relations studies; second, it is to provide a critical reality check on today’s East Asian international order in process while discussing Korea’s possible ways of adapting itself to a possible coming order. Toward the first aim, I will illustrate key features of three East Asian systems in history: the Sino-centric tribute system, the Japanese imperial system and the Cold War system. In so doing, I will explore the ways in which Korea was related to the three systems. It would seem that historically Korea had largely taken a conformist stance in a defensive spirit, in relation to the three systems. To address the second aim, I will delineate the contours of shifting East Asian international order in the post-Cold War era, by briefly looking at security views of China, Japan and the US. And, it will be discussed that there exists a danger of reproduction of the cold war-style security structure in East Asia today.

About the Speaker

Young Chul Cho is Associate Professor at the Jindal School of International Affairs of O.P. Jindal Global University. He completed his PhD in International Politics at the School of Social Sciences in the University of Manchester, Britain. He was Brain Korea 21 Postdoctoral Fellow at Yonsei University in Seoul. He also taught international relations and political science at Kyung Hee University and Ewha Womans University. His research interests are International Relations theory, critical geopolitics, and East Asia. His articles have been published in Cambridge Review of International Affairs (forthcoming), International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, Japanese Journal of Political Science, Pacific Focus, Korea Observer, East Asia: An International Quarterly, and so on.