1. Overcoming US-North Korean Enmity: Lessons from an Eclectic IR Approach
- Author:
- Linus Hagström and Magnus Hagström
- Publication Date:
- 12-2019
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The International Spectator
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- Periods of mutual enmity in US-North Korean relations are typically interrupted by more conciliatory gestures. How can the many twists and turns in this relationship be explained and hopefully overcome so that more long-lasting détente is accomplished? Drawing eclectically on realism and constructivism, we conclude that a nuclear deal should address not only North Korea’s interests in security and regime survival, but also its status concerns. Applying the same theories to the other part of the dyad – the US – we conclude that it may now have material interests in ameliorating the relationship, but that such a development requires US foreign policy discourse to cease depicting North Korea as “irrational” and “evil”.
- Topic:
- Security, Nuclear Weapons, Realism, and Constructivism
- Political Geography:
- Asia, North Korea, North America, and United States of America