Emanuel Pastreich
April, 2003
Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
DMZs Seen and Unseen;
The Real Challenges of Security and Culture in the 21st Century
We often think of North Korea, or Taiwan, as the last remaining traces of a cold war order that stand on the edge of collapse. We imagine that both problems may be resolved in the next decade, or perhaps even sooner, as economic forces overwhelm military and ideological conventions. Yet I would posit that we are perhaps being misled by our own preconceptions. How can it be that as tensions increase in the United States media and more spending for the military is approved in the Blue House that those on the street in Seoul seem to feel quite at ease with the current process of economic integration between North and South Korea, and an unprecedented group of South Koreans civilians have taken off for a ceremony in Pyongyang? How do we reconcile these divergent events? How can tensions mount between Japanand North Korea(or even South Koreaand Japan) at the same time that economic integration between North Koreaand China, Japanand South Koreacontinues unabated? Part of the situation derives from misunderstandings. Part of the situation derives from the unique challenge of a cultural and technological nature posed by the 21st century.