North Korea is perilously close to developing strategic nuclear weapons capable of hitting the United States and its East Asian allies. Since their first nuclear test in 2006, North Korea has struggled to perfect the required delivery systems. Kim Jong-un’s regime now appears to be close, however. Sung Chull Kim, Michael D. Cohen, and the volume contributors contend that the time to prevent North Korea from achieving this capability is virtually over; scholars and policymakers must turn th...

Politics in North and South Korea provides students with a comprehensive understanding of the political dynamics of the two Koreas. Giving equal weight to North and South Korea, the authors trace the history of political and economic development and international relations of the Korean peninsula, showing how South Korea became democratized and how Juche ideology has affected the establishment and operation of a totalitarian system in North Korea.Written in a straightforwa...

For close to sixty years, the United States has maintained alliances with Japan and South Korea that have included a nuclear umbrella, guaranteeing their security as part of a strategy of extended deterrence. Yet questions about the credibility of deterrence commitments have always been an issue, especially when nuclear weapons are concerned. Would the United States truly be willing to use these weapons to defend an ally?In this book, Terence Roehrig provides a detailed and compreh...

Covering the years 1962 to 2011, this volume includes the most provocative and important writings from Stephen Cohen's fifty-year career of observing South Asia-as a professor, as a government official, and, since 1998, as a scholar at the Brookings Institution. Several pieces have never been published in book form.The author begins with a critical look at his past writing-where he was right, and where he was wrong-followed by original essays on the region's military history, the t...

A thorough examination of the establishment and development of Chinas Special Economic Zones (SEZ). These eight SEZs marked a major milestone in China's gradual market-oriented reform process, and the developmental fluctuations of these zones offers an in-depth understanding of the complexities and difficulties of reform. They also provide critical insight into Chinas thirty years of economic and social transformation. This book is a valuable and practical resource for governments, academics ...

KOREA FOCUS is a monthly webzine and a quarterly journal, featuring commentaries and essays on Korean politics, economy, society and culture, as well as relevant international issues. The articles are selected from leading Korean newspapers, magazines, journals and academic papers from prestigious forums.

India is now enmeshed in the deterrence game-actively with its traditional adversary Pakistan, and potentially with China. At the same time it is finding easier access to fissile materials and strategic technologies. In order to deal with these developments safely and wisely, the nation needs a much more sophisticated and multidisciplinary understanding of the strategic, technological, operational, and cost issues involved in nuclear matters.In this important book, Indian strategic ...

"A great journalist" raises troubling questions about the forgotten war in this courageous, controversial book—with a new introduction by Bruce Cumings ( The Baltimore Sun)."Much about the Korean War is still hidden, and much will long remain hidden. I believe I have succeeded in throwing new light on its origins." —From the author's prefaceIn 1945 US troops arrived in Korea for what would become America's longest-lasting conflict. While history book...

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a miracle. In an era of growing cultural pessimism, there is a pervasive belief that different civilizations cannot function together. Yet the ten countries of ASEAN are a thriving counter-example of coexistence. Here, more than 625 million people live together in peace.In 1967, leaders from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand struck a landmark agreement, forming ASEAN. They had realized that political ...

In Capitalism: A Ghost Story, best-selling writer Arundhati Roy examines the dark side of Indian democracy - a nation of 1.2 billion, where the country' s 100 richest people own assets worth one quarter of India's gross domestic product.Ferocious and clear-sighted, this is a searing portrait of a nation haunted by ghosts: the hundreds of thousands of farmers who have committed suicide to escape punishing debt; the hundreds of millions who live on less than two dollars a da...

IN 1991 THE UNITED STATES trounced the Iraqi army in battle only to stumble blindly into postwar turmoil. Then in 2003 the United States did it again. How could this happen? How could the strongest power in modern history fight two wars against the same opponent in just over a decade, win lightning victories both times, and yet still be woefully unprepared for the aftermath?Because Americans always forget the political aspects of war. Time and again, argues Gideon ...

The 1930s was a dark period in international affairs. The Great Depression affected the economic and social circumstances of the world’s major powers, contributing to armed conflicts such as the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War. This volume focuses exclusively on Japan, which witnessed a flurry of progressive activities in this period, activities which served both domestic and international society during the “tumultuous decade.”Featuring an interdisciplinary and internat...