"Cold War Comrades: An Emotional History of the Sino-North Korean Alliance"

About the Event

In this major new interpretation of Sino-North Korean relations, Gregg A. Brazinsky argues that neither the PRC nor the DPRK would have survived as socialist states without the ideal of Sino-North Korean friendship. Chinese and North Korean leaders encouraged mutual empathy and sentimental attachments between their citizens and then used these emotions to strengthen popular commitment to socialist state building. Drawing on an array of previously unexamined Chinese and North Korean sources, Brazinsky shows how mutual empathy helped to shape political, military, and cultural interactions between the two socialist allies. He explains why the unique relationship that Beijing and Pyongyang forged during the Korean War remained important throughout the Cold War and how it continues to influence the international relations of East Asia today. You can purchase Cold War Comrades at Cambridge University Press here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cold-war-comrades/B1EC12EE3FC64C3C1CD29BA8B45FA985.

About the Speaker

Gregg A. Brazinsky works on U.S.-East Asian relations and East Asian international history. He is interested in the flow of commerce, ideas, and culture among Asian countries and across the Pacific. He is proficient in Mandarin Chinese and Korean. He is the author of two books: (2017), which focuses on Sino-American Rivalry in the Third World and (2007), which explores U.S.-South Korean relations during the Cold War. Currently he is working on two other book projects. The first examines American nation building in Asia during the Cold War. The second explores Sino-North Korean relations between 1949 and 1992 and focuses specifically on the development of cultural and economic ties between the two countries. He has received numerous fellowships to support his research including the Kluge Fellowship from the Library of Congress, the Smith Richardson Foundation junior faculty fellowship, and a fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Center. Professor Brazinsky also currently serves as the director of GW's Cold War Group.

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Host or Publisher Sigur Center for Asian Studies at GW