This is the full PDF of the 2015 edition of Joint U.S.-Korea Academic Studies. Please click here to download the individual chapters included in this publication.

At the Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI), we take pride in being able to connect people and ideas. In a globalized, networked world, connections are made constantly. It is often the ability to sustain those contacts, then collaborate and develop products or programs that makes meetings worthwhile. For KEI, one of our goals is to be a bridge between the academic community and the policy community. We want to be as an organization where information and ideas flow back and forth between the two sides. A main way we accomplish this goal is through our Academic Symposium. This year, KEI traveled back to my home state of Illinois for our annual Academic Symposium in conjunction with the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) conference. More and more, in a globalized, interconnected world, conversations about the importance of Korea and Asia are no longer just bridged between in Washington, DC and Seoul or any other foreign capital. Now various cities, states, and even Congressional districts can no longer ignore the trends in a rising Asia. Each year at our Academic Symposium, KEI tries to focus on key developments that are important for all of us to better understand. KEI again turned to the skills and insights of Dr. Gilbert Rozman, the emeritus Musgrave Professor of Sociology at Princeton University, to serve as the Editor-in-Chief for this Joint U.S.-Korea Academic Studies volume and as an advisor to KEI’s efforts with the AAS conference. This collaboration has once more brought together an excellent group of scholars and practitioners for this project. Both at the conference and in this volume, these experts have intelligently addressed large, challenging themes that are pervasive throughout Asia and important for the U.S.-Korea alliance. A major issue is how countries in Asia address their relationships with China and the United States. Often, China is the main economic partner for these countries while the U.S. provides the security and stability they need to thrive in a competitive Asia region. Another challenge is with North Korea creating more instability, causing the militaries in the region to make new calculations about North Korea’s capabilities and its capacity to create tensions that could quickly escalate into dangerous conflicts. Yet, even with the troubles North Korea provides at the nation-state level, we also wanted to better understand the growing implications for policy from the lives of the individual people living and interacting on the Korean peninsula and across the DMZ. This volume also discusses Korea’s and Japan’s development assistance efforts in Southeast Asia, which still raise questions about the ability for East Asian interaction and progressing in a way that benefits the countries themselves and the whole Asia region in a positive way. The connection between the academic and policy communities through the distribution of information about key issues in Asia permeates through this volume. Whether our connection with you is new or continuing, we hope you enjoy the 26th edition of the Joint U.S.-Korea Academic Studies volume and the excellent work inside.

– The Honorable Donald Manzullo

President & CEO, Korea Economic Institute of America

November 2015