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The Prospects of Human Rights in US–China Relations: A Constructivist Understanding (2020.01)

  • Author : Hun Joon Kim
  • Journal : International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
  • Publisher : Oxford University Press
  • Volume : 20(1)
  • Publication Date : 2020년 1월
  • DOI : 10.1093/irap/lcy020
  • Abstract : What are the prospects of U.S.-China relations in the area of human rights? Skeptics maintain that human rights is no longer an issue between the United States and China. A traditional understanding of U.S.–China relations ignores the role of norms, while the constructivist perspective recognizes their independent effects. This paper links the traditional understanding of power politics between the United States and China with the study of constructivist norm research. The three findings of constructivist norm theories are relevant and applied to predict the status of human rights in U.S.-China relations: the historical construction of norms, the long-term and multifaceted effects of norms, and the persistence of norms. Based on these theoretical predictions, it is expected that, although convergence is not completely impossible, the past dynamic of competition and confrontation will continue and human rights will still be a contentious issue in U.S.-China relations.

Tradition and Innovation in Max Weber’s Political Thoughts (2019.12)

  • Authors : Chiwon Choi
  • Journal : Zeitschrift der Koreanisch-Deutschen Gesellschaft fuer Sozialwissenschaften
  • Publisher : K-G Association For Social Sciences
  • Volume : 29(4)
  • Publication Date : December, 2019
  • Abstract : This paper re-presents ‘Max Weber’ as a political scientist and political thinker in the context of German intellectual and academic traditions. For Weber, politics is culture in a comprehensive sense. From Weber’s confrontation of ​the ‘autonomous logics’(Eigengesetzlichkeiten) of cultural modernity, a concept of political thoughts consisting of five elements, is derived. The core ls the third and fourth element. As the value domains within the ‘cultural modernity’ collide and conflict with each other while developing their own ‘autonomous logics’, so do the value domains within Weber’s thoughts. This is inevitable because Weber’s thoughts were influenced and shaped by various disciplines such as law, philosophy, theology, history, and economics. Weber’s theoretical and practical experience with real politics characterizes his thoughts of politics. Above all, Weber’s political thoughts, which were formed through his confrontation with the German Historical school of economics as an ‘older form of political theory’, develops its own ‘autonomous logics’. It has a dual moment of tradition and innovation. ‘Value-freedom’ is only one representative form of the full expression of this ‘autonomous logics’. The real essence of the ‘autonomous logics’ in Weber’s thoughts are hidden, are pulsed in the German intellectual and academic context. In West’s intellectual history, Weber’s political thoughts have the meaning of reflection of the problem within the tradition of Western politics since Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

Intra-Regional Balance of Power and Economic Integration (2019.12)

  • Author : Sangsoo Lim and Iordanka Alexandrova
  • Journal : JIAS
  • Publisher : Institute of International Affairs
  • Volume : 26(2)
  • Publication Date : 2019년 12월
  • Abstract : What made possible the voluntary formation of the European Community? The answer to this question lies in the distribution of capabilities in Europe after the end of World War II. Centralized integration took place because three conditions occurred at the same time. First, the emergence of the Soviet Union as an overwhelming symmetrical common threat to France, West Germany, Italy, and the Benelux gave them incentive to cooperate. Second, the aggregate power of the threatened states was sufficient to counter the threat. Third, no single state within the balancing coalition was more powerful than all the others taken together. This allowed them to surrender decision-making authority over important economic sectors to supranational institutions without concern that these would be dominated by a single state.

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The Rise of the US Federal Reserve as a World Monetary Authority: Revisiting the Volcker Shock (2019.12)

  • Author : Kyuteg Lim
  • Journal : The Korean Journal of International Studies
  • Publisher : The Korean Association of International Studies
  • Volume : 17(3)
  • Publication Date : December, 2019
  • Abstract : In the existing International Political Economy literature, the Volcker Shock has been widely regarded as historical significance in the development of international political economy. Three successive waves of IPE have evolved to highlight it respectively, as a subjugation of the US state to pressures of foreign states, to international financial power, and institutional configurations of US financial power. Without close attention to the particular role of the US Federal Reserve, however, these observations obscure the unprecedented process of a new mode of monetary governance. This paper argues that the Volcker Shock ushered in the rise of the US Federal Reserve as a world monetary authority in a way that the inner-making process of autonomous monetary policy became a new way of governing monetary and financial affairs. The Federal Reserve was able to pursue autonomous monetary policy far away from the economic management of the US government and at the same time to discipline banks in international financial markets. The Federal Reserve eventually established itself as a new kind of monetary authority between US government and international financial markets. This paper contributes to the study of international monetary power.

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The Principles of Institutional Design through The 1987 Constitutional System of Korea – Focusing on Representativeness, Effectiveness and Accountability(2019. 12)

  • Authors : Hyun-Jae Ho
  • Journal : Journal of Parliamentary Research
  • Publisher : The Korea Parliamentary Research Institute
  • Volume : 14(2)
  • Publication Date : December, 2019
  • Abstract :This paper analyzes the 1987 constitutional system by focusing on representativeness, effectiveness and accountability which can be called the core principles of institutional design. The results of the analysis are as follows. Firstly, the 1987 constitutional system was focused on functional efficiency based on a thorough winner-take-all while excluding representativeness in its formation. Secondly, it failed to establish accountability as well as the intended efficiency in the outcome. What we have confirmed from these two facts is that the crisis of the 1987 constitutional system is not just a matter of the operation of the system, but a more fundamental problem stemming from the inconsistency of institutional combination based on the principles of the system’s institutional design. Thus, the alternative system should begin by considering the combination of the principles of effectiveness and consequential accountability on representativeness that can be combined in a mutually virtuous cycle and produce desirable outcomes. One such combination at this stage can be a combination of proportional representation and parliamentary system. Because it allows us to transform a weak party system into a strong party system in that the interests in society are properly represented through political parties and fair competition is achieved, while also training the political party as the primary organization of democratic accountability. And this naturally leads to accountability through the very mechanism of institutional combination.

The Controversy on Dichotomous ‘Exploitation Theory vs Colonial Modernization’ and the Idea of ‘Modernity’ Reconsidered: Varieties of ‘Modernity’ in Interdisciplinary Context (2019.12)

  • Authors : Doo-Jin Kim
  • Journal : The Journal of Asiatic Studies
  • Publisher : Asiatic Research Center
  • Volume : 62(4)
  • Publication Date : December, 2019
  • Abstract :Discussing the question of whether Japanese rule contributed to the modernization of Korea is much likely to be problematic. Should the idea of modernization continue to possess heavy political implications ? In comparison with the concept of modernity as fixed, unified or universal progress, it is often suggested that we posit amultiplicity of kinds and fields of modernity, and attempt to discern features of modernization rather than defining the nature of progress on the basis of one or two criteria. The notion of ‘multiple modernities’ may denote a certain view of colonial modernization in Korean society similar to the actual developments in modernizing non-Western societies. In Korean humanities circle, particular attention has been paid to the discourse on ‘colonial modernity’ vs ‘exploitation theory’, thus leading to the accumulation of the scholarly reinterpretations related to colonial modernity in the fields of Korean history. Korean nationalist historians presuppose an archetype of “Western modernity” on which colonial domination was based. The nationalist narratives remain prevalent in the colonial intellectual fashions they contest. By contrast, we argue that the varieties of modernity needs to be recognized in the context of interdisciplinary research, including transnational history perspective. The notion of ‘global modernity’ or ‘multiple modernities’ should be addressed to move away from the excessively value-laden use of the modernity. It is not sufficient to trace modernity as a linear movement of modern developments. Rather, recognition of modernities as the interplay of diachronic, synchronic and desynchronic actions should be carefully incorporated. We assume that the recognition of plural modernities allows us to better understand the controversy on colonial modernization. The idea of global modernity enables both Korean historiography circles to redefine varieties of modernites that go beyond their conventional perception on colonial modernization

Popularizing Grief: Tragedies and Tragic Events in Ancient Athens (2019.11)

  • Author : 안성준, 김남국
  • Journal : 정치사상연구 
  • Publisher : 한국정치사상학회
  • Volume : 25(2)
  • Publication Date : 2019년 11월
  • Abstract : This paper addresses an alternative perspective on how the political role of grief ought to be understood and examined in a democratic context. Against previous literature’s focus on grief as a singular means for the elites to manipulate the masses, we suggest that grief possesses various traits that each take part in stimulating the masses to certain political reactions. By cross-analyzing Sophocles’ Antigone and Thucydides’ account of Pericles’ Funeral Oration, we explore how the democratic citizenry have been triggered into reactionary political behaviors through grief. Specifically, this study asserts that the emotion of grief contains two political traits – contagiousness and antagonism – that, when triggered simultaneously, excites reactionary political movements from the masses.
  • 국문초록: 이 논문은 민주주의 사회에서 애도(哀悼)의 정치적 역할이 어떻게 해석되어야 하는지에 대한 대안적 관점을 제시한다. 이 주제에 대한 정치사상의 기존 연구는 주로 애도를 하나의 온전한 정치적 도구로 가정하고 정치 엘리트 집단이 어떤 방식으로 애도의 감정을 대중 전체의 정치행태를 조작하는데 사용해 왔는지를 중심으로 진행되어 왔다. 반면 본 연구는 애도가 다양한 정치적 특성을 지니고 있고 각각의 특성이 서로 다른 형태로 대중을 자극한다고 주장한다. 본 연구는 소포클레스의 ‘안티고네’와 투키디데스의 ‘페리클레스의 장례 연설’을 교차분석하여 어떻게 고대 그리스 민주시민 공동체가 애도를 통해 때로는 반동적 정치 행태를 보이고 때로는 보이지 않게 되는지 알아본다. 특히 이 연구는 애도의 두 가지 정치적 특성인 전염성(contagiousness)과 반목성(antagonism)이 동시에 발현될 경우 대중적 저항 운동의 가능성이 매우 높아짐을 주장한다.

원문링크

The Thailand-US Alliance after the Asian Financial Crisis: The Security Implications of International Economic Policy (2019.11)

  • Author : Iordanka Alexandrova
  • Journal : The Southeast Asian Review
  • Publisher : Korean Association of Southeast Asian Studies
  • Volume : 29(4)
  • Publication Date : June, 2019
  • Abstract : This article explains Thailand’s reduced commitment to the security alliance with the United States (US) in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98. It argues that the economic pressure Washington applied against Bangkok was the primary cause of the change in Thailand’s policy. In the aftermath of the crisis, the US pushed for economic restructuring in Thailand, which hurt the interests of elite groups in the financial and corporate sectors, and the labor they employed. Fearing future losses, these social actors demanded that the leadership defend their interests against further foreign interference in the domestic economy. Thailand’s bargaining power vis-à-vis the US, however, remained relatively weak due to its excessive reliance for security on the great power ally. To regain policy autonomy, the governments of Chuan Leekpai and Thaksin Shinawatra attempted to minimize security dependency by reducing alliance commitment and investing in alternative strategies to improve Thailand’s own defensive capabilities.

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Why, When, and How the US Dollar Was Established as World Money (2019.10)

  • Author : Kyuteg Lim
  • Journal : Peace Studies
  • Publisher : Korea University Peace and Democracy Institute
  • Volume : Vol.27 No.2
  • Date : 2019. 10

Abstract : In the International Political Economy literature, it has been argued that either the strength of US national economy, US political power, or institutional developments determined the universal acceptance of the US dollar during the Bretton Woods era. These explanations do not appreciate the role of the US dollar outside the sphere of market exchange and the system of inter-states. Drawing on insights from the heterodox tradition of monetary thought, this paper argues that European states played a decisive role in developing the US dollar as world money in two ways. As European states used the US dollar as abstract measure of value for rebuilding their war-torn economies and issuing various debts, these European practices led to the institutionalization of the US dollar as world measure of value at the end of the Bretton Woods system. Furthermore, as European states began to place US dollar reserves in the Eurodollar market from the early 1960s, the dynamic of the Eurodollar market developed the US dollar as cross-border credit and debt relations in the early 1970s. In particular, US Treasury debts became ‘risk’-free assets crucial to financial globalization processes

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Why, When, and How the US Dollar Was Established as World Money (2019.10)

  • Author : Kyuteg Lim
  • Journal : Peace Studies
  • Publisher : Korea University Peace & Democracy Institute
  • Volume : 27(2)
  • Publication Date : October, 2019
  • Abstract : In the International Political Economy literature, it has been argued that either the strength of US national economy, US political power, or institutional developments determined the universal acceptance of the US dollar during the Bretton Woods era. These explanations do not appreciate the role of the US dollar outside the sphere of market exchange and the system of inter-states. Drawing on insights from the heterodox tradition of monetary thought, this paper argues that European states played a decisive role in developing the US dollar as world money in two ways. As European states used the US dollar as abstract measure of value for rebuilding their war-torn economies and issuing various debts, these European practices led to the institutionalization of the US dollar as world measure of value at the end of the Bretton Woods system. Furthermore, as European states began to place US dollar reserves in the Eurodollar market from the early 1960s, the dynamic of the Eurodollar market developed the US dollar as cross-border credit and debt relations in the early 1970s. In particular, US Treasury debts became ‘risk’-free assets crucial to financial globalization processes.

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