“U.S.-Korea Relations in the 21st Century; Challenges and Prospects”
October 8, 2006
George Washington University
International Council on Korean Studies (ICKS) & Korean-American Professors Association (KAUFA).
A Fractured and Roiled Identity: the Ideological Challenges for Korea in the 21st Century
Introduction
Most analysis of the KoreanPeninsulatreats military and security issues, and occasionally economic issues, as the determining factors for the future of that nation. Although I certainly recognize the importance of those vital aspects of human society, I feel that there is amble evidence, that issues of identity and ideology in the Republicof Korea, and the DPRK as well, will be also significant issues. Today’s ideological fragmentation and radically divergent interpretations of history and society may cause considerable instability within Korean society in the years to come.
In making this claim, I am not suggesting thatKoreais necessarily unique in its ideological fragmentation. We can find indications of radically different epistemologies and historical filiations throughoutEast Asia, and across the globe. Globalization, technology, the expansion of trade and the alienation within society caused by rapid modernization has left its traces across the globe. The fluidity we find in the ideological realm today recalls much of the uncertainty in the world in the 1920s and 1930s.
ICKS oct. 2006 PASTREICH ROK Identity