**THE 8th GLOBAL ISSUES COLLOQUIUM **

Institute for International Trade and Cooperation would like to invite you to our eighth faculty colloquium.

Monday, September. 24th, 2012
5:30pm-7:00pm (Dinner will be provided)
#1002 Seminar Room, International Education Building

"South Korea and Vietnam as Middle Powers: National Identity and Geopolitics"

Presenter: Prof. Leif-Eric EASLEY

(Assistant Professor, International Security and Political Economics Division of International Studies, Ewha University)

Leif-Eric EASLEY is Assistant Professor in the Division of International Studies at Ewha Womans University where he teaches international security and political economics.  His research interests include contested national identities and changing levels of trust in the bilateral security relationships of East Asia.  He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University's Department of Government and was the Northeast Asian History Fellow at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) at Stanford University.  He was also a visiting scholar at Yonsei University and the University of Southern California's Korean Studies Institute.  Professor Easley is involved in U.S.-Asia dialogues (Track II diplomacy) with the Asan Institute and the Pacific Forum-Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Prof. EASLEY can be reached at easley@ewha.ac.kr.

Abstract

 The middle powers literature often conflates role identity (national self-conception) of middle power states with role performance (foreign policies), while neglecting East Asia as a region of hypothesis generation and testing.  Empirical studies of middle powers tend to consider European cases, Canada, Australia and South Africa, while research on contemporary East Asia international relations focuses on great powers or the development of regional institutions.  This article contributes to the middle powers literature by comparing the post-Cold War national identities and

foreign policies of South Korea and Vietnam.  A framework for analyzing national identity is applied to major sources of national self-conceptions in Seoul and Hanoi.  The article examines how identity trajectories relate to change in South Korea and Vietnam’s geopolitical positioning between the U.S. and China, and assesses the prospects for middle power cooperation in East Asia.

* This colloquium is supported by the Ewha Global Top 5 Grant 2011 of Ewha Womans University and Ewha GSIS