The Handbook is a comprehensive study of the socio-political development of the Korean peninsula. The Handbook is written by a global team of experts within the field of Korean Studies The Handbook is contemporary, interdisciplinary, and academically rigorous. The Handbook will be of great interest to students of Asia Pacific Studies, as well as researchers and policymakers interested in the region.

This edited volume explores the past, present, and future of the Korean Peninsula, with special focus on South Korea, by connecting developments in politics with those in international relations and diplomacy. The book focuses on how South Korea’s politics and international relations have evolved since the founding of the First Republic in 1948, with particular attention to the period surrounding the 2022 presidential election. The authors provide new insights into Korean politics, including South Korean electoral reform and relations with China and Japan, North Korea’s nuclear capacity, and North–South diplomacy. Beginning with a commentary by Colin Crooks, Britain’s current Ambassador to South Korea and former Ambassador to North Korea, on recent British foreign policy changes and UK–Korea relations, this book will appeal to scholars and students of politics, international relations, diplomacy, and Korean Studies.

This book examines international aid in North Korea, in particular the ongoing policy of withholding aid, through the lens of the impact on the general population to present an argument for sustainable development. Focusing on the human rights of North Koreans and presenting a case for the use of aid as a provision for social change, it explores an alternative narrative to the existing long-drawn-out rhetoric of ‘denuclearisation-first’. The book’s scope includes evaluations of the causes of international sanctions and their impact, the Kim regime’s mitigation of sanctions through marketisation and a digital economy as well as barriers to aid monitoring and the reason for the absence of any mass anti-regime movement. It also posits that North Korea is a fragile state but cloaked by the image of a strong regime. The book succinctly demonstrates that the key to unlocking the potential of North Korea’s ‘cloaked society’ does not lie in sanctions, but is to be found in engagement with development aid. As such it will appeal to students of Korean Studies, Development Studies, Asian politics and International Relations.

This book explores the recent landscape of Korean popular culture, including celebrity diplomacy, political activism, and inter-Korean relations in the era of 'ontact', with a special focus on K-pop and K-drama. Utilising the interdisciplinary approach, along with theoretical accounts, it redefines popular culture and its true power - beyond soft power - including discussions of how the pandemic and the use of online platforms have coincidently or effectively influenced recent phenomena surrounding Korean popular culture. It reveals both the possibilities and pitfalls of Hallyu diplomacy and the UN's celebrity diplomacy more broadly, and highlights how, through the mobilisation of a large internet fanbase, the modern K-pop 'standom' can influence political discourse. The book also features an examination of the political significance of the K-drama through which it highlights the potential of popular media to impact inter-Korean relations and inform current international understanding and perception of the Korean conflict. Dealing with the wider scope of Korean popular culture this book will be a valuable resource to students and scholars of South Korea, international relations, public diplomacy, political activism, and cultural and media studies.

The Handbook is a comprehensive study of the socio-political development of the Korean peninsula. The Handbook is written by a global team of experts within the field of Korean Studies The Handbook is contemporary, interdisciplinary, and academically rigorous. The Handbook will be of great interest to students of Asia Pacific Studies, as well as researchers and policymakers interested in the region.

Why are some states in India able to facilitate foreign capital inflows better while others are not? This book addresses the socio-political factors such as ideas and interests of political actors, which produce the different levels of foreign direct investment (FDI) in states of India. It studies the causal role of disparate state-society relations in the evolution of institutions facilitating and regulating FDI inflows in the states through a comparative case study on the manufacturing industries of Tamil Nadu and Odisha.

Since its origins in 1967, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival has gained worldwide recognition as a model for the research and public presentation of living cultural heritage and the advocacy of cultural democracy. Festival curators play a major role in interpreting the Festival's principles and shaping its practices. Curatorial Conversations brings together for the first time in one volume the combined expertise of the Festival's curatorial staff-past and present-in examining the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage's representation practices and their critical implications for issues of intangible cultural heritage policy, competing globalisms, cultural tourism, sustainable development and environment, and cultural pluralism and identity. In the volume, edited by the staff curators Olivia Cadaval, Sojin Kim, and Diana Baird N'Diaye, contributors examine how Festival principles, philosophical underpinnings, and claims have evolved, and address broader debates on cultural representation from their own experience. This book represents the first concerted project by Smithsonian staff curators to examine systematically the Festival's institutional values as they have evolved over time and to address broader debates on cultural representation based on their own experiences at the Festival.

Since its origins in 1967, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival has gained worldwide recognition as a model for the research and public presentation of living cultural heritage and the advocacy of cultural democracy. Festival curators play a major role in interpreting the Festival's principles and shaping its practices. Curatorial Conversations brings together for the first time in one volume the combined expertise of the Festival's curatorial staff - past and present - in examining the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage's representation practices and their critical implications for issues of intangible cultural heritage policy, competing globalisms, cultural tourism, sustainable development and environment, and cultural pluralism and identity. In the volume, edited by the staff curators Olivia Cadaval, Sojin Kim, and Diana Baird N'Diaye, contributors examine how Festival principles, philosophical underpinnings, and claims have evolved, and address broader debates on cultural representation from their own experience. This book represents the first concerted project by Smithsonian staff curators to examine systematically the Festival's institutional values as they have evolved over time and to address broader debates on cultural representation based on their own experiences at the Festival.

For almost a decade Peter Quezada, a prolific self-taught artist, painted murals and lettering on buildings and retaining walls in neighborhoods northeast of downtown Los Angeles. He refers to his work as a "graffiti deterrent" or a "substitute for graffiti," and he targets sites that are favorites of taggers and gang graffiti writers. Often he enlists their assistance and designs his murals to appeal to these youths as well as to discourage them from participating in antisocial behavior.

Highlighting the interplay of contemporary life, mass-media images that confront the public, and the use of physical space in the city landscape, "Chicano Graffiti and Murals" shows how such art as Quezada's has become the signature of modern urban culture.

Few will doubt the importance of the role that communication technology played in American politics in 2020. The Factors and Behaviors Associated with Legislator Use of Communication Technology examines the various factors and behaviors associated with legislator use of communication technology. Offering both macro and micro level perspectives as well as quantitative and qualitative data analyses, a broad perspective of the role that communication technology plays in driving legislator behavior is provided. Building a theoretical structure, this book begins with an examination of how communication technology can destabilize the policymaking process and offers an overview of media and policy process theories, and legislator roles and the association of these roles with the use of communication technology. Moving to the micro level, the authors present quantitative and qualitative evidence associated with legislator behaviors associated with the use of communication technology including compromise behaviors and political ideological polarization, closing with an examination of the use of communication technology by legislators during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.