Northeast Asia and the Two Koreas: Metastability, Security, and Community

Northeast Asia

and

the Two Koreas

(Image from Yonsei Press)

Readers of this blog with an interest in Korean studies might be pleased to know that Yonsei Press has recently published a book of articles treating issues relevant to the Korean peninsula, namely, Northeast Asia and the Two Koreas: Metastability, Security, and Community.

I mention this recent publication here on Gypsy Scholar because it illustrates an intellectual manifestation of my gyspy character, for I was intimately involved in the work on this book.

In what way?

I co-authored with Myongsob Kim an article titled "Korea as a Clashpoint of Civilizations," I translated Jean Klein's originally French article "Relevance of the European Model for Regulating Security Problems in Northeast Asia," and I proofread the entire book though I am not one of the official editors.

Those editors are Hyung-Kook Kim, Myongsob Kim, and Amitav Acharya, but they recognized my efforts:

"We would like to acknowledge our indebtedness to Professor Horace Jeffery Hodges for his meticulous and insightful cooperation in the editing of this book."

That's thoughtful of them, for the proofreading and even editing that I was involved in turned out to be a truly monumental task. After Myongsob and I had gone through the entire volume and given it to Yonsei Press, we had to twice re-read the galley proofs because Yonsei Press's software program proved incompatible with our own and thus introduced a lot of errors.

I hope that we caught every single one, but that's like hoping that I can resolve Zeno's paradox by achieving an infinite progression of steps in finite time. Some might be up to it, but I'm not.

In case anyone wants to know the meaning of "metastability," here's what the book's very first footnote explains:

As a physical term, "metastable state" describes a state characterized by an apparently firm but actually precarious stability whose delicately balanced factors can suffer a destructive chain reaction if subjected to a sudden impact. Homeostatic conditions are maintained within fixed limits, but if these limits are exceeded, the system can shift wildly in a wholly new, often far less desireable direction. Such catastrophic shifts may occur through an escalation of political "tit-for-tats." As one application of this concept to Northeast Asian international politics, see Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Choice: Global Domination or Global Leadership (New York: Basic Books, 2004), 107.

For those not yet put off, here's more information: the book is 356 pages and costs 20,000 won (about 20 dollars), an astonishingly good price for an academic tome.

Disclaimer: Though I was paid for my editing work, I don't receive any financial gain from the sales of this book.

However, should any generous souls wish to further reward all of my hard work, I'm not averse to private contributions...