Scottish Centre for Korean Studies Distinguished Lecture Series: Taekyoon Kim

About the event

This lecture sets out to identify and explore a toxic concept of ‘Asian traps’ that are anchored in East Asia’s developmentalism-obsessed aid policies, with the particular reference to three Asian donors – China, Japan, and South Korea.

Through their historical paths of modernisation, three donor countries commonly share the state-led economic growth strategies in accordance with the developmental state thesis, albeit differently applied. The developmental state in East Asia not only justified the embedded symbiosis between governments and non-state actors – particularly, business sector – by emphasising economic development as nation’s top priority, but also overshadowed democratic transitions as the secondary concern of the state.

Legacies of East Asia’s developmental approach to economic modernisation have been deeply entrenched as a strategic backbone of three Asian donors’ developmentalist foreign assistance policies towards the Global South, which would create the root cause of Asian traps.

In this regard, comparing three Asian donors’ developmentalism-centred aid strategies will be examined by tracing the commercialised patterns of the development state in the field of development aid across China, Japan and South Korea.

About the speaker

Taekyoon Kim is the Director of Peace Cooperation at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies and Associate Dean of the Graduate School of International Studies at Seoul National University. He received his D.Phil. in Social Policy and Intervention (social development) from the University of Oxford, and another Ph.D. in International Relations (international development) from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University.

His research interests cover international development, peace studies, global south studies and international political sociology, and his scholarly works appear at various peer-reviewed journals such as 'Journal of Democracy', 'International Sociology', 'Global Governance', as well as book projects such as 'The Korean State' and 'Social Policy' (Oxford University Press, 2011).

About the Distinguished Lecture series

Each year, the Scottish Centre for Korean Studies welcomes a fantastic range of guest speakers to give a free public lecture. They cover a range of topics, from literature and poetry to international relations.

Often, speakers will present on recent publications, and audiences have the opportunity to participate in question and answer sessions after presentations.

Selected lectures have been recorded and uploaded to the Scottish Centre for Korean Studies’ YouTube channel and Facebook page.

How to attend

This event is free to attend and open to all. Registration is not required.

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Study Korean Studies with us and explore one of the most dynamic countries in East Asia, gaining a unique vantage point on crucial topics of relevance across the Northeast Asian region and the globe. We offer a taught MSc in East Asian Studies with a Korean pathway as well as an MSc by Research and a PhD in Korean Studies.