Sarkar Publishes Op-Ed in BU Today on N. Korea
Jayita Sarkar, Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published a recent Op-Ed examining the options on the table for the United States in facing the current threat posed by North Korea. Sarkar argues that diplomacy, not brinkmanship, is the answer.
Sarkar’s Op-Ed, entitled “POV: Weighing Our Options for Dealing with North Korea,” was published in BU Today on October 16, 2017.
From the text of the Op-Ed:
North Korea has proven that even “a tinpot dictator” like Kim Jong-un can guide an extremely poor country into nuclear weapons possession. While some analysts argue that additional sanctions—more targeted and thus presumably more effective—constitute the ultimate solution for the North Korean situation, doubtsremain about their effectiveness.
Since North Korea is neither a democracy nor a state integrated into the global economy, sanctions have so far failed to hurt. Any military option carries the real possibility of becoming a nuclear war that would involve not just the North Korean and US capitals of Pyongyang and Washington, but also American allies—Japan and South Korea—and adversaries—Russia and China. High-pitched threats and efforts to caricature Kim Jong-un, such as President Trump dubbing him the “Rocket Man,” can only cause further damage to any possibility of finding a diplomatic solution.
This brings to the fore a key predicament regarding the North Korean crisis. What is meant by a solution and what are our policy options? Is it learning to live with North Korean nuclear arms? The United States has been doing this quite well since the first North Korean test in 2006. Is it learning to tolerate North Korean missile tests? This is a tough one since the tests have effectively proven North Korea’s ability to target US territory. Is it denuclearization, i.e., forcing Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons? This option is not possible without a regime change, which in turn is not possible without US military action, and such action might draw multiple countries in the region into a nuclear war.
Jayita Sarkar, an historian by training, is Assistant Professor of International Relations at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. Her expertise is in the history of U.S. foreign policy, nuclear proliferation, the global Cold War, South Asia and Western Europe. Her research has appeared or is forthcoming in the Journal of Cold War Studies, Journal of Strategic Studies, Cold War History, International History Review, and elsewhere. Dr. Sarkar has held fellowships at MIT, Harvard, Columbia and Yale universities, and obtained a doctorate in International History from the Graduate Institute Geneva in Switzerland.