Sustainable Peace in Northeast Asia examines the causes of lasting and complex tensions in the region from underlying political, historical, military and economic perspectives; discusses their historical development and political-economic implications for the world; and explores possible solutions to build lasting peace. The book is unique in that it approaches the topic from the historical perspective of each constituent country in the region. Major global powers such as the United States and Russia have also closely engaged in the political and economic affairs of this region through a network of alliances, diplomacy, trade and investment. The book also discusses the influence of these external powers over the crisis, their political and economic objectives in the region, their strategies and the dynamics that their engagement has created. Both South Korea and North Korea have sought reunification of the Korean peninsula, which will have a substantial impact on the region. The book examines its justification, feasibility and effects for the region. The book discusses the role of Mongolia in the context of the power dynamics in Northeast Asia. A relatively small country, in terms of its population, Mongolia has rarely been examined in this context; Sustainable Peace in Northeast Asia makes a fresh assessment of its potential role.

When two of us (Jifi Kolbek, Miroslav Sriltek) were working in North Korea on the Czech Slovak field expeditions of the early 1990s, we did not think initially of comparing our results with the vegetation of surrounding areas or of writing a book. Our efforts mainly involved observing and documenting the vegetation as completely as possible and initial recognition of vegetation units. At first we focused on the most obvious vegetation types, but eventually also any important types that we could discern. Later we focused more on forests, since almost ali of northeastern Asia has forest potential and forests stiH do form the landscape matrix in most areas. First we studied suburban woods and forests, most of which are strongly affected by human activities. Later, though, we also had chances to visit and study lovely mountain regions, including Myohyang-san, Kumgang-san, Su jang-san, and the high, especially beautiful Changbai-shan on the border between North Korea and China. The Changbai-shan is the highest mountain system in the Korean Peninsula, including the highest peak Paektu-san. We gradually changed our goal from an evaluation of forest data from North Korea to comparison with available field data and literature sources from comparable surrounding areas. These include South Korea, the Russian Far East, northeastern China (Manchuria), and northem Japan, including the Kuril Islands. Finally we decided to prepare a preliminary survey of the forest vegetation of the Russian Far East and eventually of aII of northeastem Asia, which would be published in English.

This book offers a detailed analysis of the domestic politics of regionalism in the three major nations of Northeast Asia (China, Japan, and Korea), as well as in the most important external actor, the United States.

The problem of memory in China, Japan and Korea involves a surfeit rather than a deficit of memory, and the consequence of this excess is negative: unforgettable traumas prevent nations from coming to terms with the problems of the present. These compelling essays enrich Western scholarship by applying to it insights derived from Asian settings.

These timely essays highlight regional cross-fertilization in music, film, new media, and popular culture in Northeast Asia, including analysis of gender and labor issues amid differing regulatory frameworks and public policy concerning cultural production and piracy.

In this revisionist history of early modern China, Evelyn Rawski challenges the notion of Chinese history as a linear narrative of dynasties dominated by the Central Plains and Hans Chinese culture from a unique, peripheral perspective. Rawski argues that China has been shaped by its relations with Japan, Korea, the Jurchen/Manchu and Mongol States, and must therefore be viewed both within the context of a regional framework, and as part of a global maritime network of trade. Drawing on a rich variety of Japanese, Korean, Manchu and Chinese archival sources, Rawski analyses the conflicts and regime changes that accompanied the region's integration into the world economy during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Early Modern China and Northeast Asia places Sino-Korean and Sino-Japanese relations within the context of northeast Asian geopolitics, surveying complex relations which continue to this day.

Manchuria entered the twentieth century as a neglected backwater of the dying Qing dynasty, and within a few short years became the focus of intense international rivalry to control its resources and shape its people. This book examines the place of religion in the development of Manchuria from the late nineteenth century to the collapse of the Japanese Empire in 1945. Religion was at the forefront in this period of intense competition, not just between armies but also among different models of legal, commercial, social and spiritual development, each of which imagining a very specific role for religion in the new society. Debates over religion in Manchuria extended far beyond the region, and shaped the personality of religion that we see today. This book is an ambitious contribution to the field of Asian history and to the understanding of the global meaning and practice of the role of religion.