Can you be an expert on a place without speaking the main language? In the case of North Korea, of course, that means Korean, and whether an analyst can read, write and speak Korean.
It’s time to admit that US North Korea policy has failed. Democrats and Republicans have repeatedly sailed into the headwind of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions to no avail.
Regardless of who wins the US election, South Korea, not North Korea, should be a priority for the next administration and neglecting South Korea risks the US not seeing the strategic forest for the North Korean nuclear trees.
Despite its increasing international reputation as a global middle power, the tremendous success of its culture exports, and recognition of its effective governance, South Korea faces an image problem in Australia.
With public attitudes towards fact shifting, fiction presents the opportunity to communicate policy - and historical fiction, ethnographic fiction, creative non-fiction and even ‘fictional international relations’ all invoke a deeper, less literal kind of truth.
Over the past year, long-suppressed strategic debates re-emerged in South Korea: accepting a less-involved United States, strengthening relations with China, securing an independent nuclear weapons capacity, or combining all of these and steering a path towards a unified Korea that could sustain some form of armed neutrality.
Without middle power diplomacy, South Korea's diplomacy will ultimately end up battling the same diplomatic crises with North Korea it has in the past — or worse
Who is watching, researching, analyzing and reporting on the potential for the next Korean Peninsula crisis to occur?
Despite the flood of academic papers, think tank reports, workshops and seminars on the topic, there appears to be few ideas on how being a middle power helps resolve Korean Peninsula issues.
Articles discussing pre-emptive strikes on North Korea often ignore the potential long-term strategic change that would result from a conflict on the Korean peninsula.
