Rival Reputations: Coercion and Credibility in US-North Korea Relations

by Van Jackson

How has North Korea managed to experience numerous foreign policy crises since the 1960s without escalation to war?  Why has North Korea been willing to repeatedly engage in small-scale attacks against the United States and its South Korean ally?  And why have U.S. officials in liberal and conservative presidential administrations only rarely taken North Korean threats seriously?  In the book  Rival Reputations  (Cambridge University Press), Van Jackson argues that these puzzles are best explained with reference to the weight of history in U.S. and North Korean foreign policy.  The book draws on the concept of reputation--the influence of past words and deeds on decision-making in the present--to explain patterns of hostile interactions in foreign policy between the United States and North Korea from 1960s through the present day.  The book contributes to major debates about both the role of reputation in international relations and Korean historiography.  The book's findings also have implications for the conduct of U.S. and South Korean foreign and defense policy toward North Korea.

228 pages, Hardcover

First published February 29, 2016

Reviews

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when I was writing my thesis on U.S. foreign policy, and I learned a lot about events that I had never heard/learned about. This book is not only theoretically convincing but is also informative. The author does an excellent job outlining the complexities between U.S-North Korean relations.

[Davis Florick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book.