NORTHEAST ASIAN HISTORY FOUNDATION 10/2022
-
Lee Byeong-taek, Head of the Research Institute for International Relations and Historical Reconciliation
A Stop to Long Depression
The Northeast Asian History Foundation held the 2022 NAHF Annual Conference privately on “Culture and War in East Asia” over two days from Thursday, August 11 to Friday, August 12.
COVID-19 has greatly restricted communication with researchers overseas. It seems that the period has persisted so long that the daily life influenced by COVID-19 has become 'normal.' The foundation has prepared to hold an international academic conference since last year in anticipation of the end of COVID-19. The COVID-19 situation has eased, but there were still difficulties in holding in-person meetings. Despite many hardships, this annual international conference became a new opportunity to exchange with foreign researchers who participated face-to-face and non-face-to-face. We sincerely hope that all scholars can directly attend the conference and interact in person from next year.
History and Planning
This year’s annual international academic conference was planned in consideration of the nature of the international academic conferences the foundation has held. The direction of the planning is fully expressed in the welcoming address of the foundation’s chairman, Lee Young-ho.
The Northeast Asian History Foundation was established in 2006 to contribute to establishing a peace regime by resolving historical conflicts in Northeast Asia. To realize this goal, the foundation has continuously promoted exchanges and cooperation with domestic and foreign scholars. We have interacted and communicated with scholars from East Asia, such as Japan, China, Vietnam, and Mongolia, and European and American scholars.
However, it was relatively difficult to set up a forum for academic exchanges at the international level as the conference mostly focused on exchanges between countries. To compensate for the imbalance, the foundation intends to hold an international academic conference every year starting from this year.
We intend to converge the research achievements of the international academic community on East Asian issues by providing an academic forum where domestic scholars, scholars from East Asia, including Japan and China, and scholars from other regions of the world can meet in one place. The foundation intends to make the following efforts through international academic conferences to resolve historical conflicts in Northeast Asia. First, we will fully embrace a comparative perspective to secure universality and diversity. Second, we will expand the scope of the topic to include the historical issues between Korea, China, and Japan and between East Asian and international history.
Since its establishment, holding international academic conferences has been a key project of the foundation because cooperation with the international community is crucial in responding to the historical provocations of China and Japan. This task of the foundation was different from other institutions that specialized in Korean studies. The foundation has identified, carried out, and developed these tasks well. In the early days of the foundation, the focus was on meeting with researchers from China and Japan, but to supplement this, various exchanges were also made with researchers from Vietnam, Mongolia, Europe, and the United States.
Nevertheless, the nature and content of the conference were somewhat limited at the international level. There were indeed insufficient preparations for incidental situations related to holding an international academic conference, including financial resources, but most of all, we lacked the process of viewing the foundation's current issues from an international perspective and re-establishing them. It has been a while since we recognized that ‘our current issue’ can soon become an international issue. However, it was still not easy to properly raise issues to solve historical problems while considering the role in the international community matching Korea's level of growth.
This annual international academic conference attempted to find an overlapping area of interest with the international academic community on the subject of culture and war. It was a topic that included historical issues in China. During the session on culture on the first day, August 11, Korean speakers gave presentations in response to China's cultural origin debate, and European and American researchers presented cultural phenomena from various perspectives. In an exciting keynote speech by UNESCO Secretary-General Han Kyung-koo, who spoke about how to approach the cultural phenomenon of East Asia, I felt like I was given a huge topic on how to close the gap between domestic and overseas academic circles in the future.
The second day dealt with the Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1592 and the Korean War. The presentations by the two panels could undoubtedly change the notion of the two wars. The keynote speech by Professor Peter Lorge at Vanderbilt University included a reflection on research trends in American academia which focuses on the dynamics of 'powers.' He also mentioned that the Ukrainian-Russian war was an opportunity to realize the importance of small and medium-sized countries. The two panels on the topic of war, organized by the foundation’s researchers Lee Jeong-il and Oh Byeong-soo, saw the ‘world’ through ‘local’ eyes. It was in line with the reflection on Professor Lorge's research methodology. These connections will play an essential role in setting the direction for future research on war history.
The foundation has specifically attached the word “annual” to the international academic conference held this time. It shows the determination that it will continue to hold the conference. However, just as any resolution can be short-lived, that determination may become footloose. Nevertheless, for it is an organization’s determination, not an individual’s, I expect that it will show a difference in persistence, just like how an organization's memory lasts longer than an individual's memory. In his memoirs, Jean Monnet, the father of European integration, said that the British excelled at managing and maintaining institutions. If you look at the British monarch or Parliament, you can understand it very well. I hope the foundation also demonstrates its excellent ability to maintain the system so that the annual international academic conference it started will take root as an academic conference that can lead the historical reconciliation by leading the research of East Asian history.
There are different opinions within the foundation regarding the contents of the academic conference. Some say a panel should be formed by choosing the central theme every year, while others say it should be operated freely by emphasizing the diversity of topics of presentations. Considering the many difficult circumstances the foundation currently faces, both opinions are valid. This issue should be flexibly resolved by comprehensively considering changes in the foundation's circumstances and difficulties in putting it into practice in the future.
Direction for International Academic Exchange
Responding to the historical distortions by China and Japan is the foundation's primary task. The foundation has tried to communicate directly with China and Japan to respond to this problem since its establishment. It was an attempt to meet and solve problems face-to-face among concerned parties. Such attempts to communicate with the concerned parties will continue in the future. However, this type of communication with China and Japan is showing limits. In particular, Korea and China have maintained a relationship through common economic interests for the past 30 years, but the denominator of the common interest has greatly diminished with the growth of the Chinese economy. Also, as China aims to become a world hegemony based on economies of scale, China does not see Korea as an equal for talks on historical issues. As long as China does not feel the need to regard Korea as an equivalent for discussions and tries to spread its logic directly on the world stage, Korea’s attempts to persuade China are bound to be limited.
The need to persuade the international community on the historical distortion issue began when the conversation between concerned parties showed limitations. The biggest stumbling block we faced in the internationalization of the issue was difficulties in developing a logic of persuasion alongside financial constraints. For this, future international academic exchanges should focus on developing a logic that will persuade the international community, which takes time and persistent efforts. Building trust in the international community is similar to this. I sincerely hope that developing a logic to persuade the international community through consistency and trust will become the direction for the organization and exchange of the foundation’s international academic conferences in the future.
The user can freely use the public work without fee, but it is not permitted to use for commercial purpose, or to change or modify the contents of public work.
- Northeast Asia History Network
- Northeast Asia History Library
- DOKDO Research Institute
- DOKDO Museum Seoul
- Education and Training
