Fri, 28 October 2016
The relations between South Korea, Japan and the United States are often described as triangular. The two Asian countries have been long-time alliance partners of America, and all share common interests, such as the denuclearization of North Korea. Yet this North East Asian triangle is facing an uncertain future, and while it has to adapt to the rise of China, America debates its role in the region, and South Korea and Japan keep clashing over historical disputes. To learn more about these challenges for the relationship between the three countries, we had the pleasure of interviewing Jonathan D. Pollack. He spoke to us about the paradoxical realities of East Asia’s international relations, South Korea’s and Japan’s different perceptions and agendas, and about the implications of these issues for the United States and its presence in the region. Jonathan D. Pollack is the Interim SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies in the Center for East Asia Policy Studies and a senior fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution. Previously, he was a professor at the U.S. Naval War College and worked for the Rand Corporation. Jonathan Pollack has written numerous books and articles on East Asia’s international relations and received his MA as well as his PhD in Political Science from the University of Michigan. |
Fri, 14 October 2016
In the past fifteen years, families in the United States have adopted more than 200.000 children from other countries, and over 20.000 from South Korea. The origins of America’s status as an adoption nation lie in the years after the Second World War and oftentimes in humanitarian intentions. Yet, adoptions are also linked to problematic phenomena, from racial preferences on the side of adopters to economic interests in the adoptees’ home countries. To learn more about the adoptions that link America and Korea, we had the pleasure to interview Catherine Ceniza Choy. She spoke to us about the historical roots of this phenomenon and the intentions that drive it, the particular development of adoptions from Korea to the United States, and the many interpretations and problems that arise from them. Catherine Ceniza Choy is Professor of Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies at UC Berkeley. She is the author of the book “Global Families - A History of Asian International Adoption in America” (NYU Press) as well as various journal articles and another book on international adoption. Choy received her PhD in History from the University of California in Los Angeles, an MA from the same school and a BA from Pomona College. |