• Date: September 25th, Friday, 2020 13:00 – 18:00
• Location: Room 303, SNUAC (Bldg. 101)

This seminar is jointly hosted by SNUAC Center for Eurasian and Central Asian Studies (CECAS) and the Institute of International Studies, SNU. The aim of this seminar is to work towards publishing a monograph on the diplomatic behaviors of middle-ground states in Eurasia. There are a total of nine authors, who will present his or her own research topic and main ideas to share the research situations among authors. This seminar will help form an in-depth understanding of the overall research area.

Main presentation: Beomshik Shin – Comparative Regional Studies and Middle-ground State Diplomacy (13:00 – 13:15)

Afterward, 30 minutes will be given per presentation: 20 minutes of presentation and 10 minutes of discussion.

Section I. Middle Eurasian Regional Politics and Middle-ground State Diplomacy (13:15 – 15:45)

1. Junghoo Park – Mongol
2. Seongwoo Hwang – Kyrgyzstan
3. Bonggu Kang – Uzbekistan
4. Jieun Lee – Kazakhstan
5. Sejin Chung – Georgia

Break (15:45 – 16:00)

Section II. Western Eurasian Regional Politics and Middle-ground State Diplomacy (16:00 – 18:00)

6. Minwoo Yoon – Azerbaijan  and Armenia
7. Beomshik Shin –  Ukraine and Belarus
8. Gyunam Kim – Poland and Hungary
9. Kyungjun Choi – Finland and Estonia

This seminar provided us an opportunity to learn the concept of middle-ground states, which countries are defined as those states, and what kind of diplomatic behavior they show. Geopolitical middle-ground states in Eurasia include Mongol, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Hungary, Finland, and Estonia, and each country shows a diverse form of middle-ground diplomacy strategies. By researching these states, we could seek out the path for Korea to take between the U.S. and China.