Korean Traditional Pattern
Korea Conference 2014

Reimagining the Korean Peninsula: Global Forces, Social Change and Conflict Resolution

This year INDePth Conference 2014 will focus on another area pivotal to the Asia-Pacific region—the Korean peninsula.

INDePth is proud to announce that Korea is the focus of its 2014 annual conference. Delegates will explore Korea through the theme “Reimagining the Korean Peninsula: Global Forces, Social Change and Conflict Resolution” by assessing both the agents of change in the two Koreas as well as interrogating Korea’s engagement with regional and global forces.

Security issues such as border clashes, nuclear armament, and refugees have been examined extensively through state-driven processes of diplomacy and retaliation. Looking at Korea outside of the conventional analytical lenses, INDePth attempts to re-assess the key issues facing the Korean peninsula by examining economic interactions, dominant state discourses, soft power diplomacy, and Korean organizations overseas as potential agents of change on the peninsula.

In Pyongyang, a symbol of reunification of the Korean peninsula. At the base of the structure are messages of support from various individuals, organizations and nations for re-unification and peace. The monument depicts two Korean women in traditional dress, with their arms stretched out trying to embrace one another and shout ‘long live reunification.’ Each woman represents the idea that the North and South are the same nation living in the same territory with the same mind, but are unfortunately divided.
In Pyongyang, a symbol of reunification of the Korean peninsula. At the base of the structure are messages of support from various individuals, organizations and nations for re-unification and peace. The monument depicts two Korean women in traditional dress, with their arms stretched out trying to embrace one another and shout ‘long live reunification.’ Each woman represents the idea that the North and South are the same nation living in the same territory with the same mind, but are unfortunately divided. (Roman Harak, Flickr)

The issues surrounding the relationship between the North and South have been commonly discussed in static frameworks where the emphasis tends to be on the diametrically opposed economic, political, and social systems. INDePth will explore efforts to reimagine the peninsula by analyzing the complicated, multi-faceted agents of change that are shaping intra-Korean relations.

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