âThe Death of Liberal Internationalism?: Donald Trump, Walmart, and the Two Koreasâ
In: Journal of American-East Asian RelationsSearch for other papers by Mitchell B. Lerner in
Current site
Google Scholar
The election of Donald J. Trump unsettled many areas of U.S. foreign policy, but few more than the nationâs relationship with Korea. This article argues that the Trump administrationâs vision for the world represents a stark break from the tradition of liberal internationalism and instead seeks to take the United States down a path that reflects the modern business practices of giant American corporations. A suitable label for this vision, as the following pages will show, is âWalmart unilateralism.â This framework abandons the traditional American policies of nation building and alliances based on shared ideological values. Instead, it embraces a more short-term approach rooted in financial bottom lines, flexible alliances and rivalries, and the ruthless exploitation of power hierarchies. This new approach, this article concludes, may dramatically transform the American relationship with Korea. Walmart unilateralism in Korea almost certainly will have some short-time positive ramifications for the United States, but its larger failure to consider the history and values of the people living on the Korean Peninsula may generate serious long-term problems for the future experience of the United States in the region.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
âAs China pulls trade from North Korea, Russia gets cozy with Kim Jong Un.â USA Today, 5 June 2017, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/06/05/russia-boosts-trade-north-korea-china-cuts/102389824/ (accessed 24 April 2018).
-
âAsian countries on Trumpâs trip have largely positive views of U.S. but disagree on policy,â 3 November 2017, http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/11/03/opinions-in-asian-countries-on-trump-trip/ (accessed 24 April 2018).
-
âBorder Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements.â Executive Order, 25 January 2017, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-border-security-immigration-enforcement-improvements/â(accessedââ26ââApril 2018).
-
Globe Boston . 14 July 1968, 11 November 1983. âCome to the Table and Make a Deal.â President Trump Changes His Tune on North Korea.â Time, 7 November 2017, http://time.com/5012974/donald-trump-south-korea-kim-jong-un/ (accessed 24 April 2018).
-
âDonald Trump defends arming Japan, South Korea with nuclear weapons.â ABC 13 Eyewitness News, 3 April 2016, http://abc13.com/politics/trump-defends-controversial-policy-on-nuclear-weapons-/1274498/ (accessed 26 April, 2018).
-
Eisenhower Dwight D. âSpecial Message to the Congress on the Mutual Security Program. March 13, 1959.â The American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=11680 (accessed 24 April 2018).
-
Korea Times. 14 December 2016, 11, 13, December 2017.
-
Los Angeles Times. 6 April 1986.
-
New York Times. 8 February 1968, 26 October 2005, 14 April 2013, 29 December 2017, January 2018.
-
Newsweek, 5 October 2017, http://www.newsweek.com/trump-scores-first-win-horrible-south-korea-trade-agreement-678892 (accessed 24 April 2018).
-
âNote on a Conversation with the Acting Ambassador of the Peopleâs Republic of Poland, Comrade Pudisz, on 9 October 1967 between 1000 and 1130 hours in the Polish Embassy,â 20 October 1967. Woodrow Wilson Center. History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/116640 (accessed 24 April 2018).
-
NSC [National Security Council] Histories. Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library. Austin, TX.
-
Politico Magazine, âDonald Trumpâs Year of Living Dangerously,â January/February 2018, https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/02/donald-trump-foreign-policy-analysis-dangerous-216202 (accessed 24 April 2018).
-
Records of the U.S. Department of State. Record Group 59. National Archives II, College Park MD.
-
âRemarks by President Trump in Joint Address to Congress,â 28 February 2017, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-joint-address-congress/ (accessed 26 April 2018).
-
âSouth Korea is disturbed that Donald Trump said Korea was once ruled by China.â Salon, 20 April 2017, https://www.salon.com/2017/04/20/south-korea-disturbed-by-president-trumps-grasp-of-cartography-history/ (accessed 24 April 2018).
-
âSouth Korea: a model of development?â The Guardian, 28 November 2011, https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/nov/28/south-korea-development-model (accessed 24 April 2018).
-
âTillerson says he wasnât invited to dinner while visiting South Korea.â Hankyoreh, 20 March 2017, http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/787239.html (accessed 24 April 2018).
-
Tillerson Rex. âMeeting the Foreign Policy Challenges of 2017 and Beyond,â 12 December 2017. Atlantic Council-Korea Foundation Forum, Washington, DC, https://www.state.gov/secretary/20172018tillerson/remarks/2017/12/276570.htmââ(accessedââ24 April 2018).
-
Transcript of Republican Presidential Debate,â 6 February 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/us/politics/transcript-of-the-republican-presidential-debate-in-new-hampshire.html?_r=0 (accessed 24 April 2018).
-
Truman Harry S. âSpecial Message to the Congress on Greece and Turkey: The Truman Doctrine. March 12, 1947.â The American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=12846 (accessed 1 May 2018).
-
âTrump outraged South Koreans by saying Korea used to be part of China. Is he right?â Public Radio International, 20 April 2017, https://www.pri.org/stories/2017â04â20/trump-outraged-south-koreans-saying-korea-used-be-part-china-he-right (accessed 26 April 2018).
-
âTrump: Iâd be âhonoredâ to meet Kim Jong Un under âright circumstances.â CNN, 2 May 2017, https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/01/politics/donald-trump-meet-north-korea-kim-jong-un/ (accessed 24 April 2018).
-
âTrump: South Korea should pay for $1B missile defense system,â CNN, 28 April 2017, http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/28/news/trump-south-korea-thaad-trade/index.html?iid=EL (accessed 24 April 2018).
-
Trump Donald J. The America We Deserve. New York: Renaissance Books, 2000.
-
Trump Donald J. Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America. New York: Threshold, 2016.
-
Trump Donald J. âSpeech at the Center for the National Interest,â 27 April 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/28/us/politics/transcript-trump-foreign-policy.html (accessed 24 April 2018).
-
U.S. Department of State. Foreign Relations of the United States. 1949. Vol. VII: The Far East and Australasia, Part 2 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1976).
-
Washington Post. 7 August 1953, 7 February 1968, January 2018.
-
Agov Avram . âNorth Koreaâs Alliances and the Unfinished Korean War.â Journal of Korean Studies 18, No. 2 (Fall 2013): 225â62.
-
Armstrong Charles âThe Destruction and Reconstruction of North Korea, 1950â1960.â The Asia-Pacific Journal 7 (16 March 2009), https://apjjf.org/-Charles-K.-Armstrong/3460/article.html (accessed 24 April 2018).
-
Bianco Anthony . The Bully of Bentonville: How the High Cost of Wal-Mart's Everyday Low Prices Is Hurting America. New York: Doubleday, 2006.
-
Gregg A Brazinsky, . Nation Building in South Korea: Koreans, Americans, and the Making of Democracy. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009.
-
Cathcart Adam and Kraus Charles . âChinaâs âMeasure of Reserveâ toward Succession: Sino-North Korean Relations, 1983â1985.â China-North Korea Dossier #2, February 2012, https://sinonk.com/2012/02/09/china-north-korea-dossier-no-2-chinas-measure-of-reserve-toward-succession/ (accessed 24 April 2018).
-
Cheevers Jack . Act of War: Lyndon Johnson, North Korea, and the Capture of the Spy Ship Pueblo. New York, Dutton Caliber, 2014.
-
Christensen Thomas J. The China Challenge: Shaping the Choices of a Rising Power. New York: W. W. Norton, 2015.
-
Denney Steven . âU.S.-South Korea: A Pragmatic Alliance,â The Diplomat, 25 April 2015, https://thediplomat.com/2015/04/us-south-korea-a-pragmatic-alliance/ (accessed 24 April 2018).
-
Dube Arindrajit and Jacobs Ken . âThe Hidden Cost of Wal-Mart Jobs: Use of Safety Net Programs by Walmart Workers in California.â University of California at Berkeley, Labor Center Briefing Paper Series, August 2004, http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/pdf/2004/walmart.pdf (accessed 1 May 2018).
-
Fishman Charles . The Wal-Mart Effect. New York: Penguin Press, 2006.
-
Lerner Mitchell B. The Pueblo Incident: A Spy Ship and the Failure of American Foreign Policy. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002.
-
Lichtenstein Nelson . The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business . New York: Picador, 2010.
-
Matray James I. âIrreconcilable Differences? Realism and Idealism in Cold War Korean-American Relations.â Journal of American-East Asian Relations 19, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 1â26
-
Michishota Narushige , North Koreaâs Military-Diplomatic Campaigns , 1966â2008. New York: Routledge, 2009.
-
Sarantakes Nicholas Evan . âThe Quiet War: Combat Operations along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, 1966â1969.â The Journal of Military History 64, No. 2 (April 2000): 439â57.
-
Shen Zhihua . âAlliance of Tooth and Lips or Marriage of Convenience.â u.s.-Korea Working Paper Series. U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS, Working Paper 08â09, December 2008.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1296 | 121 | 16 |
| Full Text Views | 208 | 2 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 159 | 7 | 0 |
âThe Death of Liberal Internationalism?: Donald Trump, Walmart, and the Two Koreasâ
In: Journal of American-East Asian RelationsSearch for other papers by Mitchell B. Lerner in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
The election of Donald J. Trump unsettled many areas of U.S. foreign policy, but few more than the nationâs relationship with Korea. This article argues that the Trump administrationâs vision for the world represents a stark break from the tradition of liberal internationalism and instead seeks to take the United States down a path that reflects the modern business practices of giant American corporations. A suitable label for this vision, as the following pages will show, is âWalmart unilateralism.â This framework abandons the traditional American policies of nation building and alliances based on shared ideological values. Instead, it embraces a more short-term approach rooted in financial bottom lines, flexible alliances and rivalries, and the ruthless exploitation of power hierarchies. This new approach, this article concludes, may dramatically transform the American relationship with Korea. Walmart unilateralism in Korea almost certainly will have some short-time positive ramifications for the United States, but its larger failure to consider the history and values of the people living on the Korean Peninsula may generate serious long-term problems for the future experience of the United States in the region.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1296 | 121 | 16 |
| Full Text Views | 208 | 2 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 159 | 7 | 0 |
