RESPUESTAS RELIGIOSAS ANTE LAS PANDEMIAS
For this research, three pandemics Covid-19, The Black Death, and The Spanish Flu are studied to understand how religion has played a role during these pandemics.
New Year, Old Conflicts: Nuclear crises in 2011 and their implications for US-China relations
Rob van Riet follows three conflicts with nuclear potential — rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, continued animosity between the US and Iran, and the persistent India-Pakistan dispute — set against the backdrop of shifting Sino-American relations. While each of these conflicts has a potential to undermine efforts toward international security, and may trigger war on a nuclear scale, van Riet argues, much will depend on the willingness and ability of US and Chinese leaders to work together towards their resolution.
What North Korea Wants
Maurice Strong takes a yet to be seen objective approach to the North Korea debacle. In acknowledging the political incentives that would amp the DPRK to develop its nuclear technology, he asserts the military expansion to be more of a strategic chess move than toying with its nuclear neighbors and foes. Is there a fix-all solution to nuclear proliferation on the Korea peninsula? Strong toggles through ideas of diplomacy and difficulties that lay ahead.
China’s ADIZ: A New Phase of the Pacific Arms Race
This paper offers an in-depth analysis of the history, status, and implications of the recent air defense identification zone (ADIZ) disputes in Northeast Asia involving China, South Korea, Japan, and the United States. The interests and actions of all parties are considered in light of the larger political and economic trends in the region, as well as the legal basis for claiming an ADIZ. Strategies to re-frame and deescalate the conflict and avoid military confrontation are suggested.
Arabic Awakening: Human Dignity and Democracy in Question
A new order is taking shape from North Africa to the Middle East; but as the dust settles down, will the quest for human dignity and democracy continue? Patrick Mugo Mugo analyzes what kind of governance system will win the hearts and minds of millions of the Arabic people: a Western based concept, or Turkish, Korean, Bangladesh or Indonesian models?
How South Korean Agents Used Social Media to Manipulate Public Opinion and Subvert Democracy, and How the Public is Reacting
Elements of ROK’s security and intelligence services have been implicated in a controversial campaign to sway public opinion through the use of social media during last year’s presidential campaign. Chan Woo reports on the techniques used to manipulate the outcome of the election, and the international grassroots democracy movement that it has provoked.
‘Miracle on the Han River’ Evaluated with the Perspective of Amartya Sen: The Development Case of South Korea
Hansoal Park analyzes South Korea’s historical post-war economic development process, known as the ‘Miracle on the Han River’. Shedding light on widespread abuse of labour rights as the means toward economic growth under the 18-year dictatorship of Park Chung Hee, she raises the controversial question of whether human rights repression is helpful for achieving rapid development. Comparing South Korea’s experience with Amartya Sen’s emphasis on ‘Development as Freedom’, Park concludes that “human rights should never be disregarded for the longevity of an authoritarian regime that justifies its actions for the sake of rapid development.”
Comfort Women and the Failure of International Law
Seong Eun Lee discusses the failure of international law to hold states responsible for their use of women as sexual slaves during the Pacific War. The history of international treaties and regulations outlawing such behaviour are briefly reviewed, as is the current state of the former comfort women’s struggle for justice. The author argues that interlocking structures of oppression based on power imbalances of gender and ethnicity have continued to frustrate this struggle in the arena of international law.
Key words: Korea, Japan, comfort women, international law, development, South Asia, World War II, gender, peace and conflict, ethnicity, sexual slavery, justice.
The Japanese Constitution as Peace System
The wars in Asia would seem to demand that certain European countries, the U.S., and Japan all re-examine the value systems that presumably provided the justification for those wars. Many situations of “instability” in this century were actually based on the preconceptions and deeds of the nations that applied that label. Now as ever, if a country has reason to be opposed to something, it will typically display a tendency to assume that other countries are engaged in strategic designs or acting from an adversarial position.
Talking Peace for North Korea
The announcement last week that China, Japan, North and South Korea, Russia and the United States will meet within one month for multilateral talks on the North Korea issue has been greeted worldwide with unbridled optimism (‘A Welcome First Step on the Path to Korean Peace’, South China Morning Post, 2 August, 2003). A military solution has largely been ignored or downplayed, with the exception of a predictably hawkish article by former CIA Director R. James Woolsey in the Asian Wall Street Journal, detailing why an invasion of North Korea would be logistically easier and politically less sensitive than the invasion of Iraq.