The Technology Policy Of The Korean State Since 1961

This book examines the differences in technology development across industries in Korea, and the ruling government at the time of policy enactment.

The growing number of states with weak capacity to carry out basic governance functions is leading to unacceptable levels of human suffering. Using Ethiopia as a case study, this book acknowledges the multidimensional nature of state fragility and highlights the non-political factors that drive it. The first part uses institutional theory to explore how weak institutions become a source of state fragility by undermining social cohesion and the broader economic progress of countries. Part two examines the role of entrepreneurship and industrial policy as a means of creating and sustaining economic and political stability, trade policy as a means of increasing incomes and easing tensions, and technology policy as a means of engaging people in entrepreneurship and innovation. The final chapter provides lessons that fragile nations can learn from successful developing countries in Southeast Asia and Latin America. This book will appeal to researchers interested in international business, economic and business policy, international trade, and emerging markets who seek to understand how fragile states can promote sustainable peace and development.

Weaving together chapters on imperial Japan's wartime mobilization, Asia's first wave of postwar decolonization, and Cold War geopolitical conflict in the region, Engineering Asia seeks to demonstrate how Asia's present prosperity did not arise from a so-called 'economic miracle' but from the violent and dynamic events of the 20th century. The book argues that what continued to operate throughout these tumultuous eras were engineering networks of technology. Constructed at first for colonial development under Japan, these networks transformed into channels of overseas development aid that constituted the Cold War system in Asia. Through highlighting how these networks helped shape Asia's contemporary economic landscape, Engineering Asia challenges dominant narratives in Western scholarship of an 'economic miracle' in Japan and South Korea, and the 'Asian Tigers' of Southeast Asia. Students and scholars of East Asian studies, development studies, postcolonialism, Cold War studies and the history of technology and science will find this book immensely useful.

The book takes issue with the changing role of government in devising and applying science, technology and innovation (STI) policies in a late-comer economy. South Korea is presented as a point in case, due to its astonishing ascent from a developing nation in the 1960s, to an emerging market in the 1980s and a high-technology powerhouse of our days. Which incentives have kept the government focused on productivity-enhancing STI policies? And why should Korea's national innovation system be reconfigured to fully prepare for the technological challenges of the 21st century? An institutional economics perspective complemented by expert interviews shows that organizations and institutions concerned with STI policy-making in Korea have co-evolved simultaneously mainly driven by the timing of presidential election cycles. The book contains a summary in Korean.

Brazinsky explains why South Korea was one of the few postcolonial nations that achieved rapid economic development and democratization by the end of the twentieth century. He contends that a distinctive combination of American initiatives and Korean agency enabled South Korea's stunning transformation. Expanding the framework of traditional diplomatic history, Brazinsky examines not only state-to-state relations, but also the social and cultural interactions between Americans and South Koreans. He shows how Koreans adapted, resisted, and transformed American influence and promoted socioeconomic change that suited their own aspirations. Ultimately, Brazinsky argues, Koreans' capacity to tailor American institutions and ideas to their own purposes was the most important factor in the making of a democratic South Korea.