The Impossible State; North Korea, Past and Future
Allison Saltzman (Jacket Design) New York: ECCO [An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers], 2012. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. xii, [2], 530 pages. Illustrations (some color). A Note on the Korean Text. Glossary of Acronyms and Abbreviations. Notes. Index. Highlighting and some ink comments noted in the first 60 pages. Erasure residue on fep. Victor D. Cha (born December 8, 1959) is an American academic, author and former national foreign policy advisor. He is a former Director for Asian Affairs in the White House's National Security Council, with responsibility for Japan, North and South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. He was George W. Bush's top advisor on North Korean affairs. He currently holds the D. S. Song-Korea Foundation Chair in Asian Studies and is the Director of the Asian Studies program in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Before entering government, he testified before Congress on Asian security issues, and was a guest analyst for various media including CNN, ABC's Nightline, Newshour with Jim Lehrer, CBS, Fox News, BBC, National Public Radio, New York Times, Washington Post and Time. He served on the editorial boards of academic journals. He held the D. S. Song-Korea Foundation Chair in Asian Studies and Government in the Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service and directed the American Alliances in Asia Project at Georgetown University until 2004. In December 2004, Cha joined the National Security Council as Director for Asian Affairs. At the NSC, he was responsible for South Korea, North Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Island nations. He also served as the U.S. Deputy Head of Delegation for the Six Party Talks. The definitive account of North Korea, its veiled past and uncertain future, from the former Director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council. In The Impossible State, seasoned international-policy expert and lauded scholar Victor Cha pulls back the curtain on this controversial and isolated country, providing the best look yet at North Korea's history, the rise of the Kim family dynasty, and the obsessive personality cult that empowers them. He illuminates the repressive regime's complex economy and culture, its appalling record of human-rights abuses, and its belligerent relationship with the United States, and analyzes the regime's major security issues—from the seemingly endless war with its southern neighbor to its frightening nuclear ambitions—all in light of the destabilizing effects of Kim Jong-il's recent death. How this enigmatic nation-state—one that regularly violates its own citizens' inalienable rights and has suffered famine, global economic sanctions, a collapsed economy, and near total isolation from the rest of the world—has continued to survive has long been a question that preoccupies the West. Cha reveals a land of contradictions, one facing a pivotal and disquieting transition of power from tyrannical father to inexperienced son, and delves into the ideology that leads an oppressed, starving populace to cling so fiercely to its failed leadership. With rare personal anecdotes from the author's time in Pyongyang and his tenure as an adviser in the White House, this engagingly written, authoritative, and highly accessible history offers much-needed answers to the most pressing questions about North Korea and ultimately warns of a regime that might be closer to its end than many might think—a political collapse for which America and its allies may be woefully unprepared. Condition: Good / Very good.
Keywords: North Korea, Nuclear Weapons, Deterrence, DPRK, Cold War, Human Rights, International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il, Lee Myung-bak, Ballistic Missiles, Six-Party Talks, Agreed Framework, Refugees, Defectors, Sancti
ISBN: 9780061998508
[Book #73599]
Price: $45.00