American Diplomacy and Strategy toward Korea and Northeast Asia, 1882-1950 and After: Perception of Polarity and US Commitment to a Periphery

This book examines how and why American commitment toward Korea changed during the three US presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Harry S. Truman. While focusing on the statesmen’s perceptions of strategic situation as main locus of analysis, it reconstructs the process of assessment, decision-making, and diplomatic negotiations. This book demonstrates that the US policies toward Korea were shaped by the US decision-makers’ broader concerns about great power relations in East Asia and the world, rather than their immediate concerns about the development in the Korean peninsula. This realist explanation of history sets forth clear and timely terms of debate about the current changes in the US-South Korean alliance as well. By showing the dramatic unfolding of US occupation, withdrawal, and intervention in the Korean peninsula, this book also sheds light on the broader issue of US military occupations of other countries in the twenty first century.