USKI | WORKING PAPER SERIES
USKI's Working Paper Series seeks to be both informative and policy-relevant, addressing some of the most topical issues facing the Korean peninsula today.
Korea's Regional Diplomacy Series
The Regional Diplomacy track of the Working Paper Series examines Korea's strategic opportunities to increase cooperation and collaboration with its Asian neighbors.
WPS 08-4: 
How Korea Could Become a Regional Power in Northeast Asia: Building a Northeast Asian Triad, by Im Hyug Baeg, Ph.D. (NEW) In this paper, Dr. Im presents strategies for increasing South Korea's soft power and smart power around Asia in order to close the power gap with its Northeast Asia neighbors, China and Japan.
Dr. Im Hyug-baeg is a professor in the department of political science and diplomacy at Korea University and his major fields are comparative government and political theory. He is a head of the Korea Social Science Committee and a section chief for Korea political research at the institute for ASEA studies at Korea University. Dr. Im is a member of various societies including, the Contemporary Korea History Group, the Korea Politics Society, and the Korea International Politics Society. He has taught at Ehwa Womans University in Seoul, South Korea, as well as both Georgetown University and Duke University in the U.S. Dr. Im was also a sector chief of Political Reform Research for the Presidential Transition Team at the beginning of 2003. He is currently a director of policy researcher for the Uri party. Dr. Im, who received his Ph.D. from Chicago University, is the author of The Market, the State, and Democracy: Korean Democratic Transition and the Theories of Political Economy, and co-author of Political Integration of The Two Koreas: Theory and Practice, as well as author of numerous articles on political economy and transitions to democracy.
WPS 08-2: In Pursuit of Peaceful Development in Northeast Asia: China, the Tumen River Development Project and Sino-Korean Relations, by Carla P. Freeman, Ph.D. (March 2008)
Carla P. Freeman is the Associate Director of the China Studies Program at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. Freeman has held various academic positions, including Chair of the program in global studies and international affairs at Alverno College in Milwaukee and Visiting Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has also served as Program Officer for Civil Community with The Johnson Foundation and as a political risk analyst. Freeman holds a Ph.D. in China studies from SAIS.
WPS 08-1: Korea: An Important Part of India's Look East Policy, by Walter Andersen, Ph.D. (Dec. 2007)
Walter Andersen is the Associate Director of the South Asia Studies Program at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. Andersen recently retired as Chief of the U.S. State Department’s South Asia Division in the Office of Analysis for the Near East and South Asia and has held other key positions within the State Department, including Special Assistant to the Ambassador at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and Member of the Policy Planning Staff in Washington, D.C. Andersen holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago and has previously taught at both the University of Chicago and the College of Wooster.
North Korea's Foreign Relations
This working paper series seeks to provide a historical overview of North Korea’s foreign relations. Each paper in the series examines the ways in which the country’s relationship with a foreign country has influenced, and has been shaped by, its understanding of juche. Also, each study analyzes the degree to which juche has had an enduring impact on the North’s foreign policy behavior; at the same time it illustrates the ways in which Pyongyang has changed its policy in response to new developments in domestic and international arenas. Sometimes juche imposes an inflexible constraint on the extent to which Pyongyang’s diplomacy can be flexible; other times it functions as a useful overarching principle under which pragmatic changes are justified. The central analytical question then is about the politics of principle and flexibility: what is the degree to which the North’s juche foreign policy is flexible enough to accommodate changes? What is the extent to which juche is the inviolable principle? What are the circumstances under which juche becomes flexible? When does it become inflexible?
The series explores these analytical questions in the historical context of a set of bilateral relationships. It remains sensitive to peculiarities of each relationship while it also aspires to identify commonalities and patterns among North Korea’s relationships. Each paper may choose to highlight a particular period that has produced a lasting impact or started a major departure; but it will situate that period or episode within the overall history of the bilateral relationship.
Topics to be covered include:
- North Korea-South Korea
- North Korea-China
- North Korea-Russia
- North Korea-the United States
- North Korea-Japan
- North Korea’s Security Policies
WPS 08-3: Necessary Enemies: Anti-Americanism, Juche Ideology, and the Tortuous Path to Normalization, by Charles Armstrong, Ph.D. (Sep. 2008). This paper chronicles the development of U.S.-DPRK relations from 1942 to the present, including such contentious issues as the USS Pueblo Incident and North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
Charles K. Armstrong is The Korea Foundation Associate Professor of Korean Studies in the Social Sciences in the Department of History and the Director of the Center for Korean Research at Columbia University. A specialist in the modern history of Korea and East Asia, Professor Armstrong has published several books on contemporary Korea, including The Koreas (Routledge, 2007), The North Korean Revolution, 1945-1950 (Cornell, 2003), Korea a the Center: Dynamics of Regionalism in Northeast Asia (M.E. Sharpe, 2006), and Korean Society: Civil Society, Democracy, and the State (Routledge, second edition 2006), as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters. His current book projects include a study of North Korean foreign relations in the Cold War era and a history of modern East Asia. Professor Armstrong holds a B.A. in Chinese Studies from Yale University, an M.A. in International Relations from the London School of Economics, and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Chicago. He has been a member of the Columbia faculty since 1996.
Korean Economy Series
This special study on Korean economic policy focuses on the changing nature of foreign direct investment in South Korea. Foreign direct investment (FDI), defined as sufficient company ownership that provides some degree of managerial control, improves a nation's productivity and economic growth. Until the Asia financial crisis in 1997, the Korean government exercised a de facto policy of discouraging inward FDI. However, as part of its acceptance of IMF support to resolve the crisis, the government opened the economy to foreign ownership of domestic business. In teh years after the crisis, foreign investment surged. However, despite these changes, Korea still lags behind other developed and developing countries as a target for FDI.
In this three-part Working Paper Series, Dr. Arthur J. Alexander, investigates the changing nature of FDI into the country, the policy and political responses, and the concerns in the country that may induce a cautious approach by administrators.
The first report in this series examines the long-term economic perspective of FDI in Korea: Foreign Direct Investment in Korea: Trends, Implications, Obstacles. (July 2008)
The second report in this series takes an in-depth look at the trends of Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A), Korea's leading source of FDI: Mergers and Acquisitions in Korea: The Leading Edge of Foreign Direct Investment. (NEW)
The third report in this series, Policy Implications of Korea’s Low-Intensity Foreign Direct Investment, is forthcoming in December 2008