• Date: December 9th, Saturday, 2023, 13:30 – 15:30
• Location: Youngone Hall (Room 210), SNUAC (Bldg. 101) / Online via Zoom

This book talk was prepared to introduce and share two works by Prof. Seung-wook Baek. In 1991, The Starting Point of the Forgotten Retreat, the year 1991 was the point where the governing group tried to break away from the characteristics of the Revitalizing System in the crisis of 1987. To take a look at 1991 again is to question what kind of attempt at the ‘liberalist turn’ there was, and how the legacies of that institutional formation continue to this day. In this sense, this book defines the year 1991 as the starting point of the current institution and structure, and also one of the ‘forgotten retreat’. It is an attempt to criticize those who try to directly connect 2017 to 1987 and write a history of victories. As Korea lacks the discussion for a liberalist system, it is also impossible for Korea to discuss socialism as the sublation of that system. Such an examination of South Korea’s limitation in liberalist institutionalization can be associated with an international context. The Connected Crisis views the Russia-Ukraine War as a crisis caused by the destruction of the Yalta system and considers its influence on Northeast Asia, especially the future political and military changes of China and North Korea. It shows that the consideration of future issues on the Korean peninsula is closely related to the crisis of liberalist institutionalization associated with the Yalta system. Through this book talk, we will be able to examine the characteristics of Korean liberalism and its relations with current international politics.