Environment, Politics, and Ideology in North Korea
Landscape as Political Project
By (author) Robert Winstanley-Chesters
Publication date:
12 November 2014Length of book:
122 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksISBN-13: 9780739187777
Environmental and developmental matters have long proved key to North Korea’s “revolutionary” industrial and economic strategies. They have equally been important to Pyongyang’s diplomatic and geo-political efforts both during the Warsaw Pact period and in our contemporary era following the collapse of its supportive and collaborative partners. However, while environmental issues have been very important to North Korea, academic analysis and commentary addressing this field of governmental and institutional functionality has been almost entirely lacking.
This book fills this analytical void. Taking a narrative view of developmental approach throughout the political and ideological history of North Korea, Winstanley-Chesters first considers its impact on its landscapes and topographies in general throughout the era of the Kim dynasty. Second, in light of recent academic analysis suggesting North Korea as a space of Charismatic politics, the book focuses on the specificity of individual developmental sectors and projects, such as those addressing forestry and hydrology, seeking to trace general trends into these more particular environmental fields.
This book fills this analytical void. Taking a narrative view of developmental approach throughout the political and ideological history of North Korea, Winstanley-Chesters first considers its impact on its landscapes and topographies in general throughout the era of the Kim dynasty. Second, in light of recent academic analysis suggesting North Korea as a space of Charismatic politics, the book focuses on the specificity of individual developmental sectors and projects, such as those addressing forestry and hydrology, seeking to trace general trends into these more particular environmental fields.
Robert Winstanley- Chesters’ Environment, Politics, and Ideology in North Korea is an ambitious work. Far from being an unpredictable country that merely muddles through, Winstanley- Chesters presents a North Korea that was able to turn its pursuit of survival into a cohesive ideology and utilize it as justification for its developmental policies. Given the scholarship conducted on North Korean ideologies like juche and songun, it is surprising that it wasn’t until Environment, Politics, and Ideology in North Korea that an in- depth look at the role of ideology was conducted. Usually studied separately, Winstanley- Chesters’ work opens the floodgates to future research on the topic on the influence that ideology has on policy. Because of his sharp analysis on the topic and its role as a predecessor for future studies on the role of ideology in policy, I highly recommend Environment, Politics, and Ideology in North Korea.