Power Interest And Identity In Military Alliances

This book looks at U.S.-Korea relations and argues that the durability of military alliances depends upon a combination of power distribution, material assets, and identities. The author asserts that military alliances, beyond being mere tools of power balancing, are also engaged in material, representational, and institutional practices that constitute the identity of allies and adversaries.

This book looks at the U.S.-Korea relations and argues that the durability of military alliances depends upon a combination of power distribution, material assets, and identities. The author asserts that military alliances, beyond being mere tools of power balancing, are also engaged in material, representational, and institutional practices that constitute the identity of allies and adversaries.

Review: The theoretical sophistication of this book sets a new standard for all students of military alliances in general and of the US-Korea alliance in specific. Based on meticulous empirical research Suh's nuanced analysis develops a compelling case for the political significance of alliances. Beyond the balance of power, alliance politics trigger processes that construct the identities of allies and adversaries.

Suh's elegant analysis explains how and why. This important book is required reading for all scholars interested in national security and international relations theory. --Peter J. Katzenstein, Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies, Cornell University How does North Korea, a castaway from the wreckage of communism, with a ruined economy and a Lilliputian military budget in comparison to both the United States and South Korea, justify the persistence of the US-South Korean alliance?

In this thoughtful and courageous book, J.J. Suh explains how habits of the mind and long-standing institutions lock us in, where worst-case scenarios often substitute for analyses of the enemy that remains as imagined as it is real. This is one of the most sophisticated and original accounts of the security dilemma in East Asia and it will make an important contribution to the way we think about military alliances in general. --Meredith Woo, Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan