{"id":19413,"date":"2026-03-09T01:18:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T01:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/?p=19413"},"modified":"2026-03-09T01:18:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T01:18:56","slug":"what-does-it-mean-to-understand-the-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/2026\/03\/09\/what-does-it-mean-to-understand-the-middle-east\/","title":{"rendered":"What does it mean to understand the Middle East? &#8211; Principles of Middle Eastern Relations from Diplomatic Experience in Saudi Arabia and the UAE"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>Date:<\/strong> March 11th, Wednesday, 2026, 15:30 &#8211; 17:00<\/li>\n<li><strong>Location:<\/strong> Room 303, SNUAC (Bldg. 101)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<div class=\"text-base my-auto mx-auto [--thread-content-margin:var(--thread-content-margin-xs,calc(var(--spacing)*4))] @w-sm\/main:[--thread-content-margin:var(--thread-content-margin-sm,calc(var(--spacing)*6))] @w-lg\/main:[--thread-content-margin:var(--thread-content-margin-lg,calc(var(--spacing)*16))] px-(--thread-content-margin)\">\n<div class=\"[--thread-content-max-width:40rem] @w-lg\/main:[--thread-content-max-width:48rem] mx-auto max-w-(--thread-content-max-width) flex-1 group\/turn-messages focus-visible:outline-hidden relative flex w-full min-w-0 flex-col agent-turn\" tabindex=\"-1\">\n<div class=\"flex max-w-full flex-col gap-4 grow\">\n<div class=\"min-h-8 text-message relative flex w-full flex-col items-end gap-2 text-start break-words whitespace-normal [.text-message+&amp;]:mt-1\" dir=\"auto\" data-message-author-role=\"assistant\" data-message-id=\"e37db4f9-27b4-467b-99d1-512a637c7c07\" data-message-model-slug=\"gpt-5-3\">\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-col gap-1 empty:hidden\">\n<div class=\"markdown prose dark:prose-invert w-full wrap-break-word light markdown-new-styling\">\n<p data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"505\">Based on diplomatic experience across more than ten Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, this talk examines why the framework commonly used in Korea to \u201cunderstand the Middle East\u201d fails to adequately explain the criteria by which real relationships are determined. Moving beyond general explanations of politics, culture, and religion, it proposes an account of how Middle Eastern states actually evaluate relationships and suggests principles for how Korea should approach them.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"507\" data-end=\"844\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">Byung-Jun Moon (Former Charg\u00e9 d&#8217;Affaires ad interim of the Korean Embassy to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)<br data-start=\"602\" data-end=\"605\" data-is-only-node=\"\" \/>Speaker Bio: A career diplomat with many years of experience in the Middle East. He previously served as Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Dubai and as Charg\u00e9 d\u2019Affaires of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"z-0 flex min-h-[46px] justify-start\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Date: March 11th, Wednesday, 2026, 15:30 &#8211; 17:00 Location: Room 303, SNUAC (Bldg. 101) Based on diplomatic experience across more than ten Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, this talk examines why the framework commonly used in Korea to \u201cunderstand the Middle East\u201d fails to adequately explain the criteria by which real relationships are determined. Moving beyond general explanations of politics, culture, and religion, it proposes an account of how Middle Eastern states actually evaluate relationships and suggests principles for how Korea should approach them. Byung-Jun Moon (Former Charg\u00e9 d&#8217;Affaires ad interim of the Korean Embassy to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)Speaker Bio: A career diplomat with many years of experience in the Middle East. He previously served as Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Dubai and as Charg\u00e9 d\u2019Affaires of the Embassy of the&#8230;&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19414,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19415,"href":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19413\/revisions\/19415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snuac.snu.ac.kr\/eng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}