BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH PRODID:-//Telerik Inc.//Sitefinity CMS 15.1//EN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Eastern Standard Time BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20251102T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYHOUR=2;BYMINUTE=0;BYMONTH=11 TZNAME:Eastern Standard Time TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250301T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=2SU;BYHOUR=2;BYMINUTE=0;BYMONTH=3 TZNAME:Eastern Daylight Time TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DESCRIPTION:The Moynihan Institute's East Asia Program presents Ji-Young Le e\, associate professor from the American University’s School of Internati onal Service.\nThere is a popular belief that expansionist great powers in vaded Korea on numerous occasions—some 900 invasions throughout history—du e to its geostrategic location. The idea that Korea is “a shrimp among wha les” is pervasive in policy circles\, academia\, and popular dialogue\, po rtraying its history of international relations as a victim of geography. I argue that the discourse on Korea that simply repeats the “curse of geog raphy” warrants a careful rethinking\, especially when one makes a more ri gorous investigation of historical records on the role of geography in mil itary interventions from the viewpoint of Korea’s great power next door—Ch ina. Throughout their history as neighbors over 2\,000 years\, China has r arely intervened militarily in Korea—and existing interventions were at th e request of Korea\, not against it. What does this history tell us about the relationship between geography and great power military intervention a nd about China’s strategy toward the Korean Peninsula? I draw theoretical insights from critical geopolitics and suggest that international relation s scholars embrace a more nuanced approach to geography as a social\, poli tical space constituted through discursive practices that demarcate a Self from an Other. DTEND:20240126T193000Z DTSTAMP:20260511T051513Z DTSTART:20240126T180000Z LOCATION: SEQUENCE:0 SUMMARY:The Social Construction of Geography: \nIdentity and Military Inter vention in China-Korea Relations UID:RFCALITEM639140589135026581 X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

The Moynihan Institute's East Asia Program presents Ji-Young Lee\, associate professor from the American University’s School of International Service.\n

There is a popular belief that e xpansionist great powers invaded Korea on numerous occasions—some 900 inva sions throughout history—due to its geostrategic location. The idea that K orea is “a shrimp among whales” is pervasive in policy circles\, academia\ , and popular dialogue\, portraying its history of international relations as a victim of geography. I argue that the discourse on Korea that simply repeats the “curse of geography” warrants a careful rethinking\, especial ly when one makes a more rigorous investigation of historical records on t he role of geography in military interventions from the viewpoint of Korea ’s great power next door—China.

Throughout their history as neighbo rs over 2\,000 years\, China has rarely intervened militarily in Korea—and existing interventions were at the request of Korea\, not against it. Wha t does this history tell us about the relationship between geography and g reat power military intervention and about China’s strategy toward the Kor ean Peninsula? I draw theoretical insights from critical geopolitics and s uggest that international relations scholars embrace a more nuanced approa ch to geography as a social\, political space constituted through discursi ve practices that demarcate a Self from an Other.

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