They Think They're Normal
Enduring Questions and New Research on North Korea—A Review Essay
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11638152 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David C Kang (0000-0002-5685-3841, David C. Kang is Professor of International Relations and Business at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles., corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 142-171 |
| Publication date | 2011-12-28 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Security (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0162-2889 • E-ISSN: 1531-4804 |
| Publisher | The MIT Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1162/isec_a_00068 |
| OpenAlex | W2092643403 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 24 |
A wave of recent scholarship, built on rich empirical research, provides new perspectives on enduring questions about North Korea. Three books, in particular—Patrick McEachern's Inside the Red Box, Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland's Famine in North Korea, and Suk-Young Kim's Illusive Utopia—present a comprehensive and panoramic vision of North Korea today. This essay reviews these books and makes two overarching arguments. First, North Korea is more “normal” than is often thought, and its domestic politics, economy, and society function in ways familiar to other countries around the world. When viewed from the inside out, North Korea's institutions, economic life, and its people act in ways that are not only similar to those of others around the world, but that differ only in their level of intensity. Second, North Korea's continuing nuclear and military challenge is only one aspect of its overall relations with the world, and policies designed to minimize its threatening military behavior may work at cross-purposes with policies designed to improve its economy and the lives of its people. The complexities that arise in dealing with North Korea create a number of contradictory policy choices, and making progress on one issue has often meant overlooking another, or even allowing it to become worse
Famine · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Sociology · Utopia · Economic Sanctions and International Relations · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Korean Peninsula Historical and Political Studies · Law
Beyond Demonization
Poverty and Famines
How North Korea threatens China's interests
Economic Reforms in North Korea (1998–2004)
Kim Jong-il's Successor Dilemmas
Stopping a North Korean Invasion
Pyongyang's Survival Strategy
Illicit Activity and Proliferation
North Korea as an alienated state
Crisis on the Korean Peninsula
Rethinking North Korea
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
International Relations Theory and the Second Korean War
The Political Evolution of Principal-Agent Models
Preventive War and North Korea
The Korean Question
The Man Who Would Be Kim
Bad, Mad, Sad or Rational Actor? Why the 'Securitization' Paradigm makes for Poor Policy Analysis of North Korea
Why North Korea Will Muddle Through
Korea's Place in the Axis
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,6 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2024 (9) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |