• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
• /
• v.23 no.7
• /
• pp.829-833
• /
• 2017

Recently, pirate incidents involving passing ships have been continuously occurring in the seas southwest of the Philippines, the Sulu Sea and the Celebes Sea. Pirates in these areas are members of the "Abu Sayyaf Group", which consists of Islamic armed rebels. They have abducted and confined 59 ship crews over the last 13 months to obtain money for group operations. The activities of these pirates, abducting and killing crews, have became a significant threat for marine security in the Sulu and Celebes Seas and for logistic activities in Asia. This study examines and analyzes 22 recent incidents in terms of ships gross tonnage, kind, nationality, incident time, location, etc. The identity of the Abu Sayyaf Group, which has been committing this piracy and represents the de facto power behind the actors responsible, is also unpacked, along with current challenges to resolving these conflicts. Finally, responses passing ships, shipping companies, related countries and the international community should make are proposed.

• Convergence Security Journal
• /
• v.13 no.5
• /
• pp.107-116
• /
• 2013

Occur in various parts of the world and the new aspects of the regional conflict is spreading. Nation and civilization, one based on religious ideology, hegemonic tendencies areas of conflict are factors that appear. It has the characteristic that inheritance and conflict between civilizations is spreading. Christian and Islamic books, especially the confrontation and conflict is surfaced in the international political aspects, and a threat to the security of the human race is approaching. To assert the superiority of Western Christianity emerging countries, the salvation of mankind and world peace mission with the historical non-democracy, human rights, women's rights, underdevelopment, nuclear issues, and the spirit of Christian civilization, considered to be linked and reverse, Democracy Launching and human rights issues are forcing Western development model. Islam believes in absolute monotheism that God Lord only determined by the 'slave' and having the determination to serve the religious, political, social and cultural nature ingrained, and closely adjacent to each other geographically, to focus on in quency characteristics higher than the other civilizations are appearing. To assert the doctrine of non-violent Islam 'Koran' and 'knife' became known as the violent images appear in the armed conflict between the culture method. Today the world is facing a clash of civilizations is derived from the religious conflicts and confrontation and friction between the nations appear. In particular, the deep religious roots of Christianity and Islam, the Arab-Israeli conflict, including the right to live in strife confrontation between Christianity and Islam was spread. By a factor of civilization and the spread of terrorism occurred historically proven came here from all over the earth that is being generated is true. Civilization are the symbol of the nation and the species identity.

• SUVANNABHUMI
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.29-51
• /
• 2010

The diversity of Southeast Asia can be also represented at the tremendous number of ethnic groups residing throughout its various regions even beyond national boundaries. What does it mean by the composite of numerous peoples? It has triggered a lot of problems in a nation or overall Southeast Asia. Among them, the most serious one seems to be ethnic conflicts having damaged national integration and caused political, economical, and social instability. In that respect, Karen people have been a minority group situated in the most chronic dispute in Myanmar. Since 1947 some of the Karen equipped with armed forces have been fighting against the military government currently ruling Myanmar. As the result, the refugees over 200,000 population had moved to the mountain camps located at neighboring Thailand, attracting a lot of attention throughout international societies. According to 1931 census by British colonial government, the Karen have the greatest numbers in population as minority and include 16 subgroups including Karenni(Kayah) and Pa-O seemingly excluded from its category in contemporary point of view. It means that Karen people should not be regarded as an ethnic group, and in fact do not show a homogeneous identity under the title of Karen. Given the situation, we need to reconsider the category of Karen. What does the Karen mean in a real sense? Previous studies on the Karen had been performed mainly by anthropologists or missionaries such as Marshall(1922), Hamilton (1976), Hanson Tadaw(1959), Smeaton(1920), Keyes(1979), Hayami (1992; 2004), etc. Most of them examined the Karen as a group and ignored the possibilities of representing the divergent identities vis-à-vis their subgroups. Therefore, they have focused on the myth to convert Karen people to Christianity, although the Christian Karens are less than 20% of total population. As a result, I argue that they would fail to define the real meaning of Karen. It has been caused us to recognize the Karen as a meaningless total entity to be accepted by all means. According to their arguments, the difference among Karen's subgroups is just dealt with the trivial matters that do not affect the ethnic boundary itself, still maintaining the ethnic identity as Karen. As we shall see on this thesis, this is never the case. My thesis aims at uncovering and scrutinizing the real meaning of the category of Karen. For the purpose of it, I will consider Karen people as a linguistic group from the beginning as shown in 1931 census. I argue that the Karen have been affected or exposed by various conditions or environments throughout the harsh history having happened on the areas of current Myanmar and Thailand, leading the vicissitudes of their ethnic identities.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
• /
• v.56 no.2
• /
• pp.264-279
• /
• 2023

The 50th anniversary of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention was in 2022. In order to reflect on the present and future of the meaning of World Heritage, this paper examines the development and changes of the UNESCO World Heritage system. After promulgating the convention in 1972, the UNESCO World Heritage system prioritized the protection of heritage sites in the world that were at risk due to armed conflicts and natural disasters to bequeath heritage to the next generation. In addition, the UNESCO World Heritage's emphasis on Outstanding Universal Value represents the particular culture of human beings formed during a certain period of time, and acts as a significant source of soft power in public diplomacy. The UNESCO World Heritage might be perceived as a shared heritage that has not only become a channel to understand various national values, but also an effective medium to convey one of UNESCO's main principles, that is, peacebuilding. However, the UNESCO World Heritage is now at the center of conflicts of heritage interpretation between many stakeholders related to invisible wars, such as cultural wars, memory wars, and history wars as the social, political, and cultural contexts concerning World Heritage have dramatically shifted with the passing of time. Paying attention to such changing contexts, this paper seeks to understand the main developments in UNESCO World Heritage's discourse concerning changes to the World Heritage Operation Guidelines and heritage experts' meetings by dividing its 50-year history into five phases. Next, this paper analyzes the main shifts in keywords related to UNESCO World Heritage through UNESDOC, which is a platform on which all UNESCO publications are available. Finally, this paper discusses three main changes of UNESCO World Heritage: 1) changes in focus in World Heritage inscriptions, 2) changes in perception of World Heritage protection, and 3) changes of view on the role of the stakeholders in World Heritage. It suggests new emerging issues regarding heritage interpretation and ethics, climate change, and human rights.