Aftermath of Korea

2018 ◽  
pp. 183-198
Author(s):  
Paul J. Heer

This chapter discusses how the impact of the Korean War undermined and ultimately destroyed Kennan’s strategic vision for US policy in East Asia. It led to the US militarization of Japan; US security commitments in Korea, Taiwan, Indochina, and the Philippines; and a hardening of US policy toward Communist China—all of which he had opposed. The net result was the application in East Asia of a version of Kennan’s own containment doctrine that he did not support. The final tragic casualty was Davies himself: the chapter describes how McCarthyism and charges of Communist sympathies led unjustly to Davies’s dismissal from the State Department, and the impact this had on Kennan.

Author(s):  
Paul J. Heer

This book chronicles and assesses the little-known involvement of US diplomat George F. Kennan—renowned as an expert on the Soviet Union—in US policy toward East Asia, primarily in the early Cold War years. Kennan, with vital assistance from his deputy John Paton Davies, played pivotal roles in effecting the US withdrawal from the Chinese civil war and the redirection of American occupation policy in Japan, and in developing the “defensive perimeter” concept in the western Pacific. His influence, however, faded soon thereafter: he was less successful in warning against US security commitments in Korea and Indochina, and the impact of the Korean War ultimately eclipsed his strategic vision for US policy in East Asia. This was due in large part to Kennan’s inability to reconcile his judgment that the mainland of East Asia was strategically expendable to the United States with his belief that US prestige should not be compromised there. The book examines the subsequent evolution of Kennan’s thinking about East Asian issues—including his role as a prominent critic of US involvement in the Vietnam War—and the legacies of his engagement with the region.


2018 ◽  
pp. 112-150
Author(s):  
Paul J. Heer

This chapter discusses how Kennan attempted to apply his strategic vision along the periphery of East Asia, after having assessed that China and the rest of the mainland were strategically expendable to the United States. He advocated the neutralization of Japan and the Philippines—but did so inconsistently—and the avoidance of any US security commitments on the Korean Peninsula or in Southeast Asia, especially Indochina. The chapter chronicles the roles that Kennan and Davies played in various policy deliberations on these countries under Acheson. It concludes with a benchmark summary of Kennan’s cumulative impact on US policy towards East Asia on the eve of the outbreak of the Korean War.


2020 ◽  
pp. 77-99
Author(s):  
Huw Dylan ◽  
David V. Gioe ◽  
Michael S. Goodman

The chapter is concerned with the CIA’s intelligence relationships with key international partners – the Five Eyes – and wrinkles in the relationship. Despite being extremely robust in general, there were difficulties. China was a notable exception; Britain and the US had fundamentally different policies. Korea was another. The chapter illustrates the impact this had on intelligence sharing. It then goes on to detail the paucity of CIA analysis concerning Korea, and why this was the case. Documents: Minutes of the British Joint Intelligence Committee 24 August 1949; CIA’s Current Capabilities of the Northern Korea Regime.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 100
Author(s):  
Vera Zerlinda Alamsyah Sulaiman

This paper explains the main factors underlying China's policy of refusing North Korea's nuclear proliferation, whereas the two countries have established defense alliance relations since the breakup of the Korean War. Geopolitically, North Korea is a strategic country for China in the East Asian region, and both countries view the presence of the US military in the region as a threat. Subsequently, North Korea began to develop its nuclear capability to challenge the continuous US military presence in South Korea. Although China and North Korea see the US influence as a security threat, China maintains its position of refusing North Korea nuclear proliferation. Previous studies regarding the relations between the two countries have explained the factors that underlie China's refusal of North Korea's nuclear proliferation. However, there have been no studies that precisely portray how nuclear weapons can influence China's policy-making towards its allies. By using extended deterrence perspective, this paper explains the variables that influence China's rejection of North Korea's nuclear proliferation. The main argument in this study is that China refuses North Korea's nuclear proliferation as a result of the disadvantage if North Korea continues its nuclear proliferation and the impact towards the regional stability that is unfavorable to China.


2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-323
Author(s):  
Kyengho Son

The US government implemented the State–Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Meeting to look over its politico-military policies and strategies to implement NSC 68/4 during the Korean War. The meeting became a critical organization to conduct the war as a limited war by developing a limited goal and providing strategies for a decision-making apparatus after the removal of General MacArthur from the post of Commander of the United Nations in March 1951. The meeting later provided politico-military directives to the JCS to continue the war in limited terms, supported the armistice negotiation, and contributed to the success of the first year’s agreement.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Shah Azami

As part of its “War on Terror”, the United States (US) provided immense sums of money and advanced equipment to Afghan warlords in order to defeat and dismantle the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Nearly two decades after the 2001 US-led intervention in Afghanistan that toppled the Taliban regime, the US continues supporting the warlords in various ways. As the intervention was also aimed at establishing a functioning state and reconstruction of the war-torn country, the US needed the support of local warlords to achieve its goals. However, over time, warlords and warlordism became a major challenge to the postTaliban state-building project and in many ways undermined the overall security and the state monopoly on violence. These warlords, who had been mostly expelled and defeated by the Taliban regime, returned under the aegis of the B52 bombers, recaptured parts of the country and reestablished their fiefdoms with US support and resources. They not only resist giving up the power and prestige they have accumulated over the past few years, but also hamper the effort to improve governance and enact necessary reforms in the country. In addition, many of them run their private militias and have been accused of serious human rights abuses as well as drug trafficking, arms smuggling, illegal mining and extortion in the areas under their control or influence. In many ways, they challenge the government authority and have become a major hurdle to the country’s emerging from lawlessness and anarchy. This paper explores the emergence and reemergence of warlords in Afghanistan as well as the evolution of chaos and anarchy in the country, especially after the US-led intervention of late 2001. It also analyzes the impact of the post-9/11 US support to Afghan warlords and its negative consequences for the overall stability and the US-led state-building process in Afghanistan.


Author(s):  
Tatiana A. Karasova ◽  
◽  
Andrey V. Fedorchenko ◽  
Dmitry A. Maryasis ◽  
◽  
...  

The article presents a historical overview of Israeli studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies RAS in the first two decades of the 21st century. The paper demonstrates the main research fields and publications of the Department for the Study of Israel and Jewish Communities, as well as the list of its heads and research fellows. The article shows how, having successfully overcome the difficulties of the 1990s that were rather hard on Russian Academy as a whole, the staff of the Israeli Studies Department in their numerous publications, speeches at Russian and international academic forums tried to respond to the new challenges in a scholarly way. In the 2000s the number of works published on the history of relations between the USSR / Russia and Israel increased, and this trend continued in subsequent years. Access to the archives for the first time made it possible to analyze the formation and development of Soviet-Israeli relations before the break (in 1953). The department expanded the directions of its academic activity. Its topics included such directions as the study of the collective memory of Jews in modern Russia, cultural identity, cultural memory, religious and secular identity of Russian Jews, attitude towards disability and people with disabilities, study of youth communities in Israel, Russia and Europe, the impact of the US-Israeli relations on the US Jewish community. Development of basic methodology for researching the state of Jewish charity in Moscow was one of the new tasks for the fellows of the Department to solve. The novelty of the tasks also included new methodology of researching the economic and socio-political development of Israel using social networks data. The Department continued to study all aspects of the life of the State of Israel — economic, socio-political and cultural processes developing in the Israeli state, including new features in regional policy and the concept of Israeli security. At present, members of the department’s, in addition to their current activities, are implementing a number of promising projects aimed at strengthening the department’s position as the leading center of Israeli studies in the post-Soviet space.


Author(s):  
SEBASTIAN BERSICK

This chapter returns to issues raised by other authors in this section: the contrast between European, Chinese, and US perceptions of hard and soft power in the contexts of regional and global governance. Taking the ASEM process as a case, it shows how Europeans and Asians have approached the interaction from different institutional perspectives. Despite this, it sees ASEM as a process that reflects, and promotes, the advance of regional institutionalism in East Asia, adding an important dimension to the Europe–China relationship. This is then contrasted with the US strategy of dual divergence: a divergent internal strategy that rejects institutionalism for managing regional security; and an external divergent strategy that rejects the building of shared and reciprocal institutions between the USA and Asia. The chapter concludes that Europe's ‘balancing by convergence’ strategy has advantages over the USA's ‘balancing by divergence’ strategy.


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