• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.440-458
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• 2012

This study analyzed the ignorance and prejudice with regard to African culture, which can be seen at the textbook and class course centering the geography class from 1990's to the present, and reviewed critically the related education and learning effects for mutual understanding. This study results are as follows: First, in the geographic environment contents, the image regarding huge continent, the local image regarding the various physical environments and the geographical importance as the ancient civilization birthplace were not included in the description. Second, the description regarding the African culture and history was focused to the singular African image, so the fixed concept and distorted image has been rooted into the formation of cultural meta-knowledge. Third, the negative sides rather than positive development and the past backward facts rather than changed status have been emphasized in the description regarding African resources and industry as well, so only the region surrounded with the various problems including poverty and the image as underdeveloped country have been rooted into the description. Now, real Africa view, an image for a variety of attractive and vibrant Africa rather than the same culture and characteristics of African must be learned in text books.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.45
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• pp.479-496
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• 2016

The aim of this essay was to investigate Marlow's desire for constructing enlightenment subject of knowledge and power sustained by the collusion of imperialism and patriarchy in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Marlow's narrative, based on his journey up the river in Africa to retrieve Kurtz, attempts to conceptualize himself as the subject of the enlightenment reason and rationality. In the novella, collusive network of ideologies of empire and gender contributes to the making of a Western Enlightenment subject. Marlow eulogizes himself for realizing the harsh realities of imperialism, political domination and economic exploitation of the natives in Africa. However, Marlow is a colonial subject who has been ruled by the hierarchical system of thought in the Western logocentrism. He is not aware that his narrative has already been infiltrated by the ideological discourse of the totalitarian enlightenment. His narrative in effect is not a self-congratulatory testimony to truth and realities but a narcissistic and self-defeating document. Marlow unconsciously employs the totalitarian ideologies of empire and gender in order to relegate the African natives to the inhuman existence and to consign women to the sphere of illusion.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.50
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• pp.131-172
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• 2018

It is noted that nowadays, the bride wealth custom takes an extremely distorted form in African society. Such a phenomenon is a result that the male-dominant culture, Western religions, and capitalist economic system have been negatively combined into dynamic factors seen as bride wealth. This means that the concept of bride wealth has been incessantly reconstructed in the middle of clash and conflict of tradition and modernity. There is also little doubt that the practice is inextricably tangled with the common and current ways of livelihood, early marriage, polygyny, kinship/family structure, poverty, and migration labor. Bride wealth has become an increasingly commercialized element under a capitalist economic system. Accordingly, its traditional symbolism is seen to be subsequently weakening, whereas a tendency towards the reification of women is strengthening more in modern society that embraces modern customs bent on the protection of women's human rights. Its commercialization has produced a result, which instigates the noted violations of women's basic human rights, gender inequality, and promotion of domestic violence. The ways that people perceive bride wealth vary according to their own sex, generation, stratification, and ethnic background. Those people who negatively recognize bride wealth will increase with the deepening of its commercialization due to the influence of capitalism. Its color and effect will deepen and depend on how its agents correspond to socioeconomic changes. They will constantly reinterpret and reconstruct it within their own environments, but the basic human rights efforts are constantly under review by concerned individuals seeking to promote equality for women as a global effort.

• The Science & Technology
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• no.3 s.418
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• pp.34-37
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• 2004

5만년인가, 4천년인가. 문화재청은 지난 2월 6일 제주도 남제주군 대정읍 상모리와 안덕면 사계리 해안에서 사람 발자국 화석 100여 점과 동식물 화석 수천점을 발견했다고 발표했다. 화석 발견 지층의 생성 시기는 구석기 중기인 5만년전으로 추정되며 선사인류 발자국 화석은 한국교원대 김정률 교수팀이 지난해 10월 처음 발견했다. 경북대 양승영 명예교수는“사람 발자국 화석은 재주도를 포함한 한반도와 중국 대륙이 육로로 연결됐다는 가설을 뒷받침해주는 증거물”이라는 견해를 밝혔다. 선사시대 인류발자국의 발견은 세계에서 7번째이며 함께 발견된 코끼리와 말 발자국은 당시 한반도가 온대 지역이 아닌 아열대 지역이었을 가능성을 제기했고, 말의 기원이 몽골에서 유래되었다는 기존 주장을 바꾸는 계기가 될 것으로 보인다. 그러나, 화석 발자국 발표 이후, 관련학자들간에 이견이 생겼다. 일부 학자들이 연대측정에 의문을 제기하고, 제주도 지층은 4천년 전에 생성된 것이며 ‘5만년 전 추정’에는 무리가 있다는 지적이었다. 한 인류의 이동을 추정하는 데는 5만년 전과 4천년 전은 엄청난 역사적 차이가 있다. 아프리카 대륙에서 시작 된 인류의 조상이 중국과 북방육로를 통해 한반도까지 이동해왔다는 지금까지 학계의 통설은 뒤집힐 것인가. 제주도의 사람 발자국 화석은 그 절대 연대가 정확히 측정된다면 한반도 인류의 일부가 중국 남방의 육로나 해로를 통해서 이동해왔을 가능성이 있다는 새로운 사실을 밝혀줄 것이다. 현대 과학이 연대측정기술을 발달시켜서 역사를 풀어나가기 시작한 것은 겨우 50여년 전으로 일천하기만 하다. 그러나, 그 학문의 깊이는 지구 나이 45억년을 밝혀냈고, 35만년 전 유기물의 생성을 추정해내는 등 심오한 경지에 이르고 있다. 현대과학의 연대측정방법론을 소개한다.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.439-445
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• 2017

Summary. Most of American pop music, which are dominating the hegemony of the global pop music market, have been derived from the culture of African Americans, most of whom were slaves of European immigrants. The music of black slaves must be the one of the greatest undisputed achievements that have most influenced the American history. Indeed, All of the mainstream pop music works around the world, including those in America, are the descendants of the black music with the gene of the black people. We can say, therefore, the music born through the Afro-American culture has become the music that every person around the world enjoys in the present. Accordingly, K-Pop music culture, centered in idol group, is also based on the black music. This fact suggests that the K-Pop culture can be spread into people in different customs or traditions with little resistance. The success factor of Motown, at the very center of the black music, which integrated the whole global music, is not only their incredibly outstanding music works, but also the self-consciousness the musicians have that they are strongly reluctant to settle down to present reality. This shall lead to the necessity of self-reflection for the Korean music market, which are obsessed with present popularity and only taking advantage of teenager market, and for those engaged in music business in Korea, who are lack of the artistic value and the consciousness as artist.

• Journal of Appropriate Technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.21-27
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• 2020

The ASF, which originated in Africa and threatens the world, landed in Asia in 2018 in China, and became a stern threat to the security of the Korean Peninsula when North Korea officially reported the ASF to the OIE in May 2019. In 1921, Montgomery, a British veterinary pathologist, made headlines by naming the African swine fever "African Swine Fever," or ASF, a disease caused by a high fatality virus that existed in East Africa. The ASF, which was a pandemic of endemic diseases in Africa, landed in Portgal around 1957 and swept through farms in Lisbon, Portugal. The ASF continued to settle in Spain and Portugal, causing 40 years of damage until the end of the 1990s, and is now in progress after landing on the Italian island of Sardinia in 1978. The virus, which landed in Portiport of Georgia on the Black Sea coast of the Black Sea in 2007, spread to Russia and caused massive damage to China in 2018, then rapidly spread to Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar in May 2019 and spread across the country, causing massive damage to the pork industry and is now in progress. Just three months after confirming the outbreak in North Korea, the outbreak at farms in Paju and Yeoncheon was confirmed on Sept. 16, 2019, leaving South Korea with the stigma of ASF-causing countries, and although the ASF's nationwide expansion has been blocked, it is currently underway in wild boars. If the ongoing ASF in the two Koreas becomes indigenous, it would be a major disaster not only for the pork industry but also for the Korean Peninsula economy. Under the current circumstances, it is impossible to focus only on veterinary areas limited to South Korea, ruling out risk factors from the ASF outbreak. Currently, it is difficult to prevent damage to the pork industry due to the ASF outbreak due to the poor water defense reality in North Korea, and as it is adjacent to China, which has a high risk of developing various epidemic diseases, there is a need for the two Koreas to jointly conduct quarantine and quarantine on the border areas. First of all, I think rapid exchange of information and education on ASF and other diseases is necessary before establishing a joint defense system on the Korean Peninsula. It is important to conduct thorough quarantine and disinfection of ASF-generated areas in North Korea, and areas bordering China and Russia, and jointly conduct thorough quarantine and control of livestock and livestock products in circulation. Cooperation by the South and North Korean water defense industries to prevent the protracted ASF on the Korean Peninsula by all means and methods is essential.

• Korea and Global Affairs
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.221-244
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• 2019

This paper attempts to analyze the role of Nigeria's current President Major (Rtd) Mahammudu Buhari and the immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan in dealing with the Boko Haram Insurgency in Nigeria. Nigeria has not been without its fair share of conflict. In fact, no decade of post-Independent Nigeria has been conflict free. With several coups, general strikes and a civil war, Nigerians have had to experience some of the most sordid tragedies arising from difference of opinions and distrust. It is interesting to mention that the conflict in Nigeria has not received the needed attention as it were. The leadership of Goodluck Jonathan did not receive the same effort and cooperation as compared to Muhammadu Buhari who came into office in May 2015. This paper argues the important roles played by the two Nigerian leaders which either aided or prevented collaboration. Goodluck Jonathan was perceived as a weak and indecisive leader whose leadership failed to effectively handle the Boko Haram insurgency. Muhammadu Buhari assumed office with a lot of high hopes and expectations from the Nigerian population and the international community to tackle the Boko Haram insurgency.

• Strategy21
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• s.46
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• pp.123-157
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• 2020

This research focuses on one important type of non-traditional threat, maritime piracy, and tries to supplement previous research from the perspective of military power, especially naval power. When considering the elements of military power, naval power is a core independent variable to explain piracy incidents. Indeed, naval power can play a key role in solving piracy problems, since naval power is the only legitimate force to respond to piracy in the sea. It is natural that well equipped and trained naval power in the sea increases the probability of capturing pirates, which leads to increasing the costs of piracy and decreasing its occurrences. In addition, since naval combatant ships have more impressive weapons than those of pirate boats, just the presence of naval combatant ships could serve to deter piracy incidents in the sea. The main purpose of this research is finding the effectiveness of large multinational naval efforts to deter piracy incidents in Africa. With this research purpose, I analyze 771 piracy incidents that occurred in African states from 2009 to 2014. Furthermore, I include all 33 coastal states in Africa regardless of the experiences of piracy incidents in order to avoid selection bias, which is very common in quantitative-based piracy incidents research. The dependent variable of this research is frequency of maritime piracy incidents for a country-year and the independent variable is the number of multi-national naval warships that operate near Somalia. With this analysis, I find the large number of multi-state naval combatant ships are negatively related to piracy incidents. In other words, as a main means to counteract piracy incidents, multi-state naval combatant ships are conducive to reduce piracy incidents near Somalia, since it increases costs (being captured) of conducting piracy.

• Maritime Security
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-53
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• 2022

One manifestation of the contemporary era of renewed great power competition has been the deepening relationship between China and Russia. Their strengthening military ties, notwithstanding their lack of a formal defense alliance, have been especially striking. Since China and Russia deploy two of the world's most powerful navies, their growing maritime cooperation has been one of the most significant international security developments of recent years. The Sino-Russian naval exercises, involving varying platforms and locations, have built on years of high-level personnel exchanges, large Russian weapons sales to China, the Sino-Russia Treaty of Friendship, and other forms of cooperation. Though the joint Sino-Russian naval drills began soon after Beijing and Moscow ended their Cold War confrontation, these exercises have become much more important during the last decade, essentially becoming a core pillar of their expanding defense partnership. China and Russia now conduct more naval exercises in more places and with more types of weapons systems than ever before. In the future, Chinese and Russian maritime drills will likely encompass new locations, capabilities, and partners-including possibly the Arctic, hypersonic delivery systems, and novel African, Asian, and Middle East partners-as well as continue such recent innovations as conducting joint naval patrols and combined arms maritime drills. China and Russia pursue several objectives through their bilateral naval cooperation. The Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation Between the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation lacks a mutual defense clause, but does provide for consultations about common threats. The naval exercises, which rehearse non-traditional along with traditional missions (e.g., counter-piracy and humanitarian relief as well as with high-end warfighting), provide a means to enhance their response to such mutual challenges through coordinated military activities. Though the exercises may not realize substantial interoperability gains regarding combat capabilities, the drills do highlight to foreign audiences the Sino-Russian capacity to project coordinated naval power globally. This messaging is important given the reliance of China and Russia on the world's oceans for trade and the two countries' maritime territorial disputes with other countries. The exercises can also improve their national military capabilities as well as help them learn more about the tactics, techniques, and procedures of each other. The rising Chinese Navy especially benefits from working with the Russian armed forces, which have more experience conducting maritime missions, particularly in combat operations involving multiple combat arms, than the People's Liberation Army (PLA). On the negative side, these exercises, by enhancing their combat capabilities, may make Chinese and Russian policymakers more willing to employ military force or run escalatory risks in confrontations with other states. All these impacts are amplified in Northeast Asia, where the Chinese and Russian navies conduct most of their joint exercises. Northeast Asia has become an area of intensifying maritime confrontations involving China and Russia against the United States and Japan, with South Korea situated uneasily between them. The growing ties between the Chinese and Russian navies have complicated South Korean-U.S. military planning, diverted resources from concentrating against North Korea, and worsened the regional security environment. Naval planners in the United States, South Korea, and Japan will increasingly need to consider scenarios involving both the Chinese and Russian navies. For example, South Korean and U.S. policymakers need to prepare for situations in which coordinated Chinese and Russian military aggression overtaxes the Pentagon, obligating the South Korean Navy to rapidly backfill for any U.S.-allied security gaps that arise on the Korean Peninsula. Potentially reinforcing Chinese and Russian naval support to North Korea in a maritime confrontation with South Korea and its allies would present another serious challenge. Building on the commitment of Japan and South Korea to strengthen security ties, future exercises involving Japan, South Korea, and the United States should expand to consider these potential contingencies.