North Korea and the Global Nuclear Order
When Bad Behaviour Pays
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:18th May '23
Should be back in stock very soon
For a state that has gained a global reputation as a violator of international norms, not least through its unwavering pursuit of nuclear weapons, North Korea's determination to become a nuclear-armed state is puzzling. If nuclear weapons beget security, insecurity, and other costs for the state, how might we understand this pursuit, and the delinquent behaviour that has arisen from it? In North Korea and the Global Nuclear Order, Edward Howell offers an answer to this question, focusing on North Korea's quest for status in the international system and developing the theoretical framework of 'strategic delinquency'. Featuring previously unpublished and new interviews with international negotiators with North Korea, and drawing upon new academic literature, Howell proffers an original theoretical framework to apply to the North Korean case. Covering a time period from the 1990s to the present-day, and using unprecedentedly rich empirical evidence, he makes the overarching argument that North Korea has strategically deployed behaviour that breaks international norms in order to reap benefits. In so doing, this book posits how over time, North Korea has learnt that despite the low status and opprobrium that might ensue, bad behaviour can pay.
Thoughtful, well-argued, judiciously structured, elegantly written and empirically well-supported, Howell makes an innovative contribution by introducing the concept of "strategic delinquency" to explore how North Korea has sought to use a three-fold pattern of actions, including provocations, norm-transgression, and deception, to advance its long-term goal of becoming a de-facto nuclear power. * John Nilsson-Wright, Associate Professor in Modern Japanese Studies, University of Cambridge and Korea Foundation Korea Fellow and Senior Fellow for Northeast Asia, Chatham House, London *
Drawing on interviews and documentary evidence, Edward Howell provides a sober and sobering account of the cumulative failures of international diplomacy to prevent North Korea from developing nuclear weapons. He shows that not only has North Korea's delinquency benefitted its illicit weapons programmes but that, through the regime-state's pursuit of status, it also threatens to undermine the established principles of global nuclear order. I recommend North Korea and the Global Nuclear Order as a clear introduction for anyone new to the subject matter, and as a source of new insight for those for whom these issues are already painfully familiar. * Alastair Morgan CMG, Former British Ambassador to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Department of War Studies, King's College London. *
In North Korea and the Global Nuclear Order, a sober study of Pyongyang's pursuit of nuclear weapons since the end of the Cold War,...Howell neatly sums up in his subtitle the lesson Kim has learnt from his first decade in power: "bad behaviour pays" * Katie Stallard, TLS *
This excellent book makes a unique contribution to the literature on the North Korean nuclear weapons program. The issue has attracted a lot of scholarly attention since North Korea acquired the capability to hit the continental United States with an intercontinental ballistic missile in 2017. * Choice *
ISBN: 9780192888327
Dimensions: 240mm x 161mm x 26mm
Weight: 638g
320 pages