South Korea and the United States began their annual Freedom Shield joint military drills today to bolster readiness against North Korea, according to CNN. The drills will continue for 11 days, with a particular focus on deterring North Korea’s nuclear threats. North Korea has condemned the U.S. and South Korea’s joint military exercises in the past, but hasn’t yet made any official comment on this week’s drills.
If you would like more context on this matter, please consider Gregg A. Brazinsky, professor of history and international affairs and Co-Director of the East Asia National Resource Center at the George Washington University. 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: Winning the Third World (2017), which focuses on Sino-American Rivalry in the Third World and Nation Building in South Korea (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.
If you would like to speak with Prof. Brazinsky, please contact GW Media Relations Specialists Cate Douglass at [email protected] and Shannon Mitchell at [email protected].
-GW-
