Uncategorized Americans in Pyongyang: Detainees, Prisoners, Hostages, and Pawns 2 Sep 201421 Sep 2014 Yesterday, North Korea gave the US media momentary access to three American nationals currently detained in the DPRK. Finding the right terms to capture what function these three unfortunate men are serving…
Uncategorized Kim Ki-nam and North Korea’s Orchestral Politics 3 Jun 20149 Jun 2014 Kim Jong Eun commands attention for obvious reasons. His charismatic heft, however, also manages to obscure a number of the other personalities at the apex of North Korean politics who…
Uncategorized Mao Zedong on “What to Praise, What to Condemn” (1951) 10 Mar 2014 In the six volumes of Mao Zedong Nianpu (1949-1976) published in Beijing this past December 2013, a number of new texts can be located, and minor mysteries solved. Chronologically organized, the writing…
Uncategorized Kunming, Lhasa, Chengdu, Berlin: Sources on Tibetan 20th Century History 5 Mar 2014 Now that the minzu (ethnicity) question is so centrally on the table in China, it is a good time to be looking to the past, for roots of current disputes…
Uncategorized New Scholarship on China’s War Against Japan: Rana Mitter and the Wiles Lectures at Queen’s University Belfast 28 Feb 2014 Rana Mitter is among the most dynamic, productive, and visible historians working on East Asia in the UK today. Dr. Mitter will be delivering a series of uniquely prestigious and…
Uncategorized Assessing Chinese-North Korean Relations: Presentation at Ohio State University 21 Jan 2014 On 9 January, I was fortunate to be able to address a group of scholars and graduate students at Ohio State University. Video of the talk will be available soon,…
Uncategorized China’s Soft Power Strategy and the DPRK 21 Jan 2014 Is North Korea, as Joseph Nye once apparently argued, “immune” from soft power and persuasion? In a recent North Korea Review article, Steven Denney and I argue that the DRPK…
Uncategorized Beyond the Korean War 16 Nov 2013 I'm pleased to have been named a member of Professor Heonik Kwon's excellent project, Beyond the Korean War.
Uncategorized Translations and Work Habits 16 Nov 2013 I was pleased to find a volunteer had translated my Atlantic essay on the Unhasu Orchestra's trip to Paris, and into Chinese, no less! Also, this is a fine essay on…
Uncategorized Discussing the Korean War at AAS 2014 27 Sep 201327 Sep 2013 My panel, entitled "Utilizing the Captured Documents: New Perspectives on Society, Institutions, and Foreign Relations in Revolutionary and Wartime North Korea, 1945-1953," has been accepted for the March 27-30 2014…
