• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.745-760
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• 2016

The name of a place represents the social and political power relations as well as showing a certain physical space. In particular, the East Sea is not only a representative name of areas represent our country, but also the name of place being in competition with the Sea of Japan internationally. Korea is committed in many ways to spread the name of East Sea in the international community, and gradually expand its name power. The purpose of this study was to investigate the names used in the newspapers and broadcasting in Francophone countries except France by analyzing the newspaper articles and broadcasting contents, and to illuminate how the names of the East Sea produced in France, and the discussion about the names were diffused in Francophone countries and what kind of influence they had on those countries. This study selected Algeria in North Africa, Belgium and Luxembourg in West Europe, and Quebec in Canada for the research areas. As a result, while Algeria in North Africa and Luxembourg are showing inhospitality to the name East Sea, Belgium and Quebec are taking a flexible attitude toward this name. In general, most Francophone countries are provided with press releases from AFP in France. Even in same article provided by AFP, The result shows that some media stick to use the name Sea of Japan solely, and others demonstrate a will to use both name East Sea and Sea of Japan simultaneously. This study was able to show that the diffusion and spread of the place name was significantly influenced by social, political interests and powers, the mess geopolitics in pop cultural materials.

• Anayses & Alternatives
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.37-78
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• 2022

The U.S.-led international order, sustained by overwhelming national power since the end of the Cold War, is gradually being restructured from a unipolar international system to a bipolar international system or a multipolar international system, coupled with the weakening of U.S. global leadership and the rise of regional powers. Geopolitically, discussions have been constantly raised about the security instability that the reshaping of the international order will bring about, given that East Asia is a region where the national interests of the United States and regional powers sharply overlap and conflict. This study aims to critically analyze whether security discussions in Korea are based on appropriate crisis assessment and evaluation. This paper points out that the security crisis theory emerging in Korea tends to arise due to threat exaggeration and emphasizes the need for objective evaluation and conceptualization of the nature and the level of threats that the restructured international order can pose to regional security. Based on the analysis of changes in conflict patterns (frequency and intensity), occurring in East Asia during the periods divided into a bipolar system (1950-1990), a unipolar system (1991-2008), and a multipolar system (2009-current), this study shows that East Asia has not been as vulnerable to power politics as other regions. This investigation emphasizes that the complexity of Korea's diplomatic and security burden, which are aggravated by the reorganization of the international order, do not necessarily have to be interpreted as a grave security threat. This is because escalating unnecessary security issues could reduce the diplomatic strategic space of the Republic of Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.312-320
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• 1993

Along with the fade out of the Cold War the world is undergoing a fundamental restructuring. The process is generally refered to regionalization and globalization. In this context, the Paper presents a geopolitical perspective on the future of Northeast Asia. To meet the global trend, it is expected that the countries in the area organize an economically cooperative unity, the concept of which the author calls the northeast Asian Rim (NEAR). With its huge potentials to become the largest economic area in the world and with its rather complicated historical and social background, the Rim is tentatively supposed to have a loose and soft organization, to be flexible in dealing with the intra-and interregional relations. The idea underlying the view is that the former area of confrontation between the land power and the sea power is, under the new world environment, going to recover its proper locational attributes and develop into a merging area, a new core. As a physical framework of the Rim a spatial structurc is assumed to consist of two-subrims and two development axes with four development centers.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.251-276
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• 2020

The purpose of this article is to critically read Globalizing Borderlands Studies in Europe and North America to examine trends in border studies conducted so far in Europe and North America and to discuss the expandability and limitations of the narrative. It introduces a variety of case studies covering the borderlands of Europe and North America from ancient to modern times. It consists of a total of 10 chapters, in addition to the introduction chapter to clarify the purpose and definition of the collaboration and the short conclusion chapter on the prospects for the future of borderlands studies. This volume has some important implications for current borderland research in two main respects. First, it can introduce us we the areas and targets that the leading researchers from European and North American academia (usually the United States') have paid attention to. It also examines the current status of borderland research and predicts whether it will be possible to study various border areas where exist in other regions (especially in Asia) based on accumulating academic achievements, as well as the possibility of expansion of so-called 'globalization'. Second, it introduces the borderland as a conceptual space, beyond the border area as a physical space that is commonly thought of when it comes to 'border'. Cases of "conceptual borderlands" can be applied to a number of topics ranging from an individual's identities to the methods of governance, religions, economies, social institutions, families, labor issues, public health services and gender issues. There are, however, also some questions to be noted in the volume: the lack of consistent use of terminology, which can be considered general problems of collaboration studies; the fact that the authors still tend to understand borderlands within the imperialist discourse, perhaps because of their academic background is situated mainly in Europe and North America; the borderlands cases described here as the areas of conflict and struggle only. Nevertheless, the book is of significance in that it suggests a possibility of various borderlands studies and helps us to have better understanding of the current geopolitical situation imposed on the Korean Peninsula, which is located on the borderland between the continental and maritime powers.