Security seems to have regained a dominant position as a concept of inquiry for the study of international relations, foreign policy or domestic contexts. This has led to the development of different approaches to its definition, interpretation and application. Obviously, this development can be interpreted along the lines of world history from the Second World War onwards, from the beginning of the Cold War and the so-called bipolar world order to the fall of the "Iron Curtain" and on to what some scholars see as the new multipolar world since the turn of the millennium. Another perspective may be the division between traditional and non-traditional security issues and the development of new issues that have gradually become intertwined with security or "securitised", either globally, regionally or domestically.
Many of the related issues and questions crystallise in the context of the Korean peninsula, and not just with the onset of the North Korean nuclear crisis. In this seminar we will attempt to identify and interpret a series of security issues for South Korea. Beginning with the interwar period 1945/48-1950, we will lay a solid foundation for understanding and analysing South Korea's current situation with regard to these issues using appropriate theoretical tools.
- Kursleiter/in: Florian Günther Pölking