American Diplomacy and Strategy toward Korea and Northeast Asia, 1882 - 1950 and After: Perception of Polarity and US Commitment to a Periphery - Hardcover

Kim, S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1403975450 ISBN 13: 9781403975454

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009

Synopsis

This book examines how and why American commitment toward Korea changed during the three US presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Harry S. Truman. While focusing on the statesmen's perceptions of strategic situation as main locus of analysis, it reconstructs the process of assessment, decision-making, and diplomatic negotiations. This book demonstrates that the US policies toward Korea were shaped by the US decision-makers' broader concerns about great power relations in East Asia and the world, rather than their immediate concerns about the development in the Korean peninsula. This realist explanation of history sets forth clear and timely terms of debate about the current changes in the US-South Korean alliance as well. By showing the dramatic unfolding of US occupation, withdrawal, and intervention in the Korean peninsula, this book also sheds light on the broader issue of US military occupations of other countries in the twentieth first century.

About this title

Review:

"This book is the best overview to date of U.S.-Korea relations from their inception in the Treaty of 1882 to the U.S. decision to join the Korean War in 1950. The author offers an original account of the postwar American diplomacy that led to the division of Korea and the outbreak of the Korean War. Well balanced between historical documentation and international relations theory, this book is an essential reference for those who study modern Korea from any disciplinary angle as well as for scholars of U.S. diplomacy in East Asia." - Yumi Moon, Assistant Professor in Modern Korean History, Stanford University

"American Diplomacy and Northeast Asia, 1882-1950 and After addresses an important subject for both historians and political scientists. Seung-young Kim examines the evolution and the sources of America's changing commitment to the Korean Peninsula. It combines extensive research into South Korean and U.S. archival materials with a sophisticated theoretical analysis to explain the importance of U.S. perceptions of changes in the polarity of Northeast Asian great power politics for the development of U.S. policy. Students and scholars will all benefit from Kim's contribution to the scholarship on Northeast Asian international politics and U.S. policy toward the Korean Peninsula." - Robert Ross, Professor of Political Science, Boston College, Associate, John King Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Harvard University, and Senior Advisor, Security Studies Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"Seung-young Kim. . . contends that few prior studies attempt to identify 'recurring patterns in the history of US commitment toward Korea." US pursuit of strategic interests, his main thesis holds, governed its Korea policy, rather than democracy or economic gain, providing a perfect example of the US approach 'toward a periphery'. . . Extensive research both in primary and secondary sources many in the Korean language constitutes a major strength of this study." - Pacific Affairs

Book Description:

This realist explanation of history sets forth clear and timely terms of debate about the current changes in the US-South Korean alliance

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1403975450
• ISBN 13: 9781403975454
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 300