[Soodang Security Studies Colloquium #20] Compound Containment

• Date and Time: May 18, 2022 / 7PM-9PM
• Venue: The Building of Politics and Economics 412 at Korea University
• Host: Dong Sun Lee (Korea University, Political Science & International Relations)
• Presenter: Dong Jung Kim (Korea University, Department of International Studies)
• Discussants: Woo-Taek Hong (Korea Institute for Defense Analysis), Ji Hwan Hwang (University of Seoul Department of International Relations ), In Han Kim (Ewha Womans University Department of Political Science and International Relations)
• Organized by: Peace & Democracy Institute, Department of Political Science and International Relations

Professor Dong Jung Kim of Korea University’s Graduate School of International Studies participated as presenter, Woo Taek Hong, a researcher at the Korea Institute of Defense, Ji Hwan Hwang, a professor of international relations at University of Seoul, and In Han Kim, a professor of Political Science & International Relations at Ewha Womans University participated as discussants. And Dong Sun Lee of Korea University’s PSIR participated as a host. Professor Dong Jung Kim introduced the book titled “Compound Content: A Reigning Power’s Military-Economic Countermeasures Against a Challenging Power.”

Abstract: When does a reigning great power of the international system supplement military containment of a challenging power by restricting its economic exchanges with that state? Scholars of great power politics have traditionally focused on examining a reigning power’s military containment of a challenging power. In direct contrast, Compound Containment demonstrates that these conventional studies are flawed without a sound understanding of the multilayered aspects of containment strategy in great power politics. Since economic capacity and military power are intimately linked to one another, countering a challenging power requires addressing both economic and military dimensions. Nonetheless, this nexus of security and economy in a reigning power’s response to a challenging power cannot be explained by traditional theories that dominate research in international security. Author Dong Jung Kim fills a gap in the scholarship on great power competition by investigating when a reigning power will make its military containment of a challenging power “compound” by simultaneously employing restrictive economic measures. Its main theoretical claims are corroborated by an analysis of key historical cases of reigning power-challenging power competition. This book also offers policy prescriptions for the United States by examining whether the United States is in a position to complement military containment of China with restrictive economic measures.