Politics

Domestically, the decision for Korea to take on the presidency of the Group of 20 (G-20) in 2010 was received with both excitement and concern. It was the first presidency…

The global energy environment affecting Korea at home and from abroad increases the necessity for green growth that can be achieved by environment-friendly energy technology development. Accordingly, the Korean government…

When the global financial crisis tore through world economies, national budgets around the world were immediately funneled to stabilize and revive the energy-intensive industries impacted by the market maelstrom. Yet,…

Green growth was put into policy actions by the Korean government in January 2009. Having adopted “low carbon, green growth” as the new national vision put forward by President Lee…

What Happened The presidential candidate for the People’s Power Party, Yoon Suk-yeol, introduced an AI version of himself to demonstrate his intimacy with technology. In response, Democratic Party’s presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung created a chatbot that answers question about his campaign. Presidential candidate Kim Dong-yeon also introduced an Artificial Intelligence spokesperson to make it easier to engage with voters…

A curious feature of advanced industrial states is anxiety about the future of democracy, not only abroad but at home as well. These worries—encapsulated in the concept of backsliding--have been particularly evident in the United States following the challenges posed by the Trump administration. The bruising fight over Brexit in Britain and the rise of…

In the last two posts, we have provided data on the share of military personnel in the Politburo and analyzed in more detail the diversity of military backgrounds, some tied to the weapons program, but others linked more clearly to the military-industrial complex, technology and internal security. Here, we consider several intepretations of these developments,…

In a previous post, we provided data on the shifting composition of the Politburo, based on a classification of personnel into six different career paths: military, diplomatic, party, state, economic and provincial. We showed that since the failed Hanoi summit of 2018, the share of military personnel has returned to levels not seen since the…