Diplomacy

Strategic Divergence: Different Countries, Differing Views

By | May 04, 2012

Although it may be too early to tell, it seems that a strategic divergence may be developing between Washington and Seoul as a result of domestic politics and frustration over failed diplomacy.  A nascent surge in populism in South Korean politics and indications of a hawkish shift in American foreign policy towards the peninsula suggest […]

France and North Korea: Odd Partners

By | May 03, 2012

When Charles de Gaulle’s government shocked the West in 1964 by recognizing Maoist China, a French trend of difference — particularly when it comes to East Asia — with its neighbors and the United States was emphasized.  Today, even as France is locked in a domestic struggle for the angry rural voter and “neither advancing […]

Jersey on the Taedong: Pedagogical Resources for Robert Egan’s “Eating with the Enemy”

By | April 28, 2012

Jersey on the Taedong: Pedagogical Resources for Robert Egan’s “Eating with the Enemy” by Adam Cathcart As apparently noxious as US-North Korea relations are at present, it is worth noting that efforts for cultural exchange never stopped in 2012 and may be primed to expand [1]. An American men’s chorus performed at the far-reaching April […]

Open Questions in the Aftermath of April 15

By | April 17, 2012

Open Questions in the Aftermath of April 15 by Adam Cathcart Unlike the DPRK economy, news about North Korea is moving faster than a horse with wings, and it’s easy to feel that the arc of events has overtaken one’s ability to trace everything that is occurring. Consider this series of facts: In the space […]

China’s Headache: Pressure Points on North Korea

By | April 14, 2012

Analysts are not cartoonists, nor are they plaintive photographers who can stun us into insight in a single instant. In a media environment where one is often provoked to, in Aidan Foster-Carter’s phrase, “cue the sneer” toward East Asia’s one-party states, the analyst has to plunge ahead anyway with meaningful work.  Thus Nick Miller, SinoNK’s […]