This volume reveals to readers the impact of recent events on diplomacy a year or so into the post-Cold War world, describing disintegration in the East, integration in the West, new relations with old allies, changes in the Third World, and multilateral diplomacy.

Presents revised and updated papers from a March 1997 conference held at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Papers investigate the new relationships emerging among Washington, Seoul, and Pyongyang in which political, military, and economic variables interact in a new way. Subjects include South Korea's nuclear option, US-North Korea economic relations, US public opinion of the two Koreas, and Japan and China's responses to changing developments in Korea. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The impact across borders of transnational identities, business links and ideas has been on the international political agenda for a long time. These cross border phenomena have a steady and profound influence on domestic politics and international relations. However, they also represent a challenge because these factors can subvert accustomed views of sovereignty. The essays in this book stress the diversity and influence as well as the limitations of cross border phenomena in the Asia-Pacific, a region home to the principles of non-interference and respect for autonomy. Emerging from this collection is a picture of an area dynamically affected by the penetration of ideas, organised interests, and financial flows. Though national borders have become more porous, state power and local identities still resist, shape and modify cross border influences.

This is R. J. Rummel's fourth book in a series devoted to genocide and government mass murder, or what he calls democide. He presents the primary results, in tables and figures, as well as a historical sketch of the major cases of democide, those in which one million or more people were killed by a regime. In Death by Government, Rummel does not aim to describe democide itself, but to determine its nature and scope in order to test the theory that democracies are inherently nonviolent. Rummel discusses genocide in China, Nazi Germany, Japan, Cambodia, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Poland, the Soviet Union, and Pakistan. He also writes about areas of suspected genocide: North Korea, Mexico, and feudal Russia. His results clearly and decisively show that democracies commit less democide than other regimes. The underlying principle is that the less freedom people have, the greater the violence; the more freedom, the less the violence. Thus, as Rummel says, "The problem is power. The solution is democracy. The course of action is to foster freedom." Death by Government is a compelling look at the horrors that occur in modern societies. It depicts how democide has been very much a part of human history. Among other examples, the book includes the massacre of Europeans during the Thirty Years' War, the relatively unknown genocide of the French Revolution, and the slaughtering of American Indians by colonists in the New World. This riveting account is an essential tool for historians, political scientists, and scholars interested in the study of genocide.

To much of the world, North Korea is an impenetrable mystery, its inner workings unknown and its actions toward the outside unpredictable and frequently provocative. Tyranny of the Weak reveals for the first time the motivations, processes, and effects of North Korea’s foreign relations during the Cold War era. Drawing on extensive research in the archives of North Korea’s present and former communist allies, including the Soviet Union, China, and East Germany, Charles K. Armstrong tells in vivid detail how North Korea managed its alliances with fellow communist states, maintained a precarious independence in the Sino-Soviet split, attempted to reach out to the capitalist West and present itself as a model for Third World development, and confronted and engaged with its archenemies, the United States and South Korea. From the invasion that set off the Korean War in June 1950 to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Tyranny of the Weak shows how—despite its objective weakness—North Korea has managed for much of its history to deal with the outside world to its maximum advantage. Insisting on a path of "self-reliance" since the 1950s, North Korea has continually resisted pressure to change from enemies and allies alike. A worldview formed in the crucible of the Korean War and Cold War still maintains a powerful hold on North Korea in the twenty-first century, and understanding those historical forces is as urgent today as it was sixty years ago.

And conclusions -- Pre-twentieth century democide -- 1. The megamurderers. Japan's savage military ; The Khmer Rouge Hell State ; Turkey's ethnic purges ; The Vietnamese War state ; Poland's ethnic cleansing ; The Pakistani cutthroat state ; Tito's slaughterhouse ; Orwellian North Korea ; Barbarous Mexico ; Feudal Russia -- 2. The centi-kilo and lesser murderers. Death by American bombing ; The horde of centi-kilo murderers ; The crown of lesser murderers -- 3. Statistics of democide, power, and social field. The social field of democide ; Democracy, power, and democide ; Social diversity, power, and democide ; Culture and democide ; The socio-economic and geographic context of democide ; War, rebellion, and democide ; The social field and democide ; Democide through the years.

The two Korean states are heirs to a great artistic and cultural tradition. Moreover, they share a long, sometimes bitter historical experience, culminating in forty years of Japanese colonial rule. Although liberated in 1945, Korea was divided. Two states emerged, a communist North and an autocratic South. In 1950, the North failed in an attempt at reunification by force and the resultant Korean War intensified the hostility which continues to this day. Since the end of the war, South Korea has become one of the world's economic success stories. North Korea has been less successful, but attracts interest for its unique development as a Marxist state.