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The Civil Wars of Partitioned States: Cold War Histories of Decolonization and Conflict

  • Asia Review
  • Abbr : SNUACAR
  • 2015, 5(1), pp.259~279
  • Publisher : 아시아연구소
  • Research Area : Social Science > Social Science in general

Steven Hugh Lee 1

1브리티시 콜롬비아 대학교

Candidate

ABSTRACT

The history of the partitioned territories that began in the immediateaftermath of World War II, and which mostly continues to this date, canbe situated in world history only when it is viewed from the internationaland local levels; on the one hand, the patterns of international actorsinvolved in the partition process and the interaction among the partitionsare to be understood solely by grasping the issue in the context of worldpolitics, namely decolonization; on the other hand, tracing the processof clashes between opposing political agendas among domestic politicalelites manifested in the form of incorporation and separation is the meansto capture the varying consequences and the intensity of the communalconflict among the cases. Moreover, seeing the partitions as one of the mutual amplifiers as well asa result of the Cold War, decolonization and the post-war system is a goodway to explain why the partitions lingered for such an extended periodof time in the four territories and how, though ironically, they contributedto maintaining an insecure equilibrium in each of the regions. In otherwords, the effect of identity formation and its consolidation (of a particularcommunity within the territory) clearly existed, which has been largely disregardedby the conventional framework highlighting the divisive and aggrievingrole of the partition within the newly created states. Also significant is the fact that they may be one, if not the only, contributing factor to theprotraction of the partitioned state. This double-sidedness presents itself,albeit indirectly, in a series of violence and atrocities committed duringthe partition process as well as the consequent armed conflict and civilwar, which were intensified by the fear and uncertainty aroused by anambiguity between potential assailants and potential victims. With this newanalytical framework, the significance of the Korean War surfaces not onlyas the starting point of the Cold War, but also as a component in the chainreaction of world history, an indispensable link connecting other linkscoming before and after itself. Above all, this linking is a necessary tasknot only on the level of understanding the global context of a particularevent, but also with a view to pinpointing the root cause of the tragedyand conflict reproduced once through partition violence and again througha series of ensuing incidents.

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