Why the Korean War was the Most Important and Enduring Cold War Conflict: Contemporary Lessons

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2013-03-08

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Ohio State University. Mershon Center for International Security Studies

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This talk will examine the legacy of the Korean War on the post-1945 international system. The changes the war elicited continue to characterize contemporary international relations. First, the Korean War militarized foreign policy-making, replacing the diplomatic efforts of the late 1940s with a new emphasis on limited war intervention-capabilities as a key measure of international power. Second, the conflict hardened animosities on the Korean peninsula and across East Asia. The region remains frozen in these hostilities. Third, and perhaps most important, the Korean War created a vision of "naked aggression" and "liberation" warfare that would dominate American thinking about international conflict thereafter. This lecture will explore these themes, with a focus on new historical scholarship.

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The Ohio State University Mershon Center for International Security Studies
The media can be accessed here: http://streaming.osu.edu/knowledgebank/Mershon13/030813.mp4

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Korean War

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http://hdl.handle.net/1811/54994

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2012-13 Mershon Center Speakers and Conferences