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East Asia (2011) 28:291311
DOI 10.1007/s12140-011-9150-3
Iain Watson
Received: 14 January 2011 /Accepted: 6 June 2011 /Published online: 18 June 2011 # Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011
Abstract The year 2010 witnessed an escalation of tensions on the Korean peninsula through two military crises. The rise in tensions can be explained by neorealism as a shifting distribution of power in the region and a small state preserving its national security. The paper argues that neorealism is not sufficient to explain the patterns and routines of crisis escalation and crisis resumption on the Korean peninsula and the North East Asian region. By focusing on the causes of conflicts neorealism fails to identify the consequences of these inter-state tensions for the evolution of an anarchical society of states in the North East Asian region. The paper provides an alternative interpretation of recent inter-Korean crisis escalation and crisis resolution in the East Asian region through the work of Hedley Bull.
Keywords Foreign Policy . Culture . Globalisation . Inter-Korean relations . Peace and security
Introduction
The English School of International Relations (IR) has various derivatives such as the Grotian International Society approach, the pluralist approach and the solidarist schools [4, 7, 19]. In this paper I focus on Hedley Bulls approach to IR [2].` Academic interest with English School approaches to East Asian international politics is now emerging in the study of IR [27, 33]. The paper is placed within this conceptual space. The paper critically assesses neorealist explanations of contemporary inter-Korean relations and the military crises of 2010. These crises were the sinking of the South Korean Cheonan vessel in March 2010 and the artillery shelling by North Korea of South Koreas Yeongbyong Island in
I. Watson (*)
Department of International Development and Cooperation, GSIS, Ajou University, Suwon, South Koreae-mail: [email protected]: [email protected]
Hedley Bull and International Society: Contemporary Reflections on the Korean Peninsula
292 East Asia (2011) 28:291311
November 2010 [18]. The paper notes criticisms of Bulls approach but argues that his work on the anarchical society can be used as an alternative explanation of the causes and the implications of these recent events for establishing peace and security on the Korean peninsula. My argument is twofold.
Firstly, I argue that the 2010 crisis was not caused...