WSP Seminar with Doo Won Choi

"World State and Unified Korea: Analyzing the Potential for a Future World Order”

Speaker:

Doo Won Choi, Sang-Kee Kim Fellow in the Weatherhead Scholars Program and diplomat in the Minsitry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea.

Discussants:

Young-sun Park, Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center, and former minister at the Ministry of SMEs & Startups in the Republic of Korea (April 2019 to January 2021).

Aurelio Nuño, Fellow at the Weatherhead Scholars Program, and former minister of public education of Mexico (2015–2017). 

How would you define the current world order? And what do you predict the world order to be in the future? One possibility is the "World State", meaning a single state in the world. Concept of World State has been envisioned by many intellectuals throughout human history. Most recently, IR constructivist Alexander Wendt argued that the World State is inevitable. This seminar focuses and builds on his theory of World State, as it is the most relevant and profound one. The World State theory can also be applied to the Korean Peninsula as a regional case study. Normatively, World State is superior to the current world we are living in, as anarchy is the fundamental source of conflict in the world. Finally, we do not know exactly when or how the World State will emerge, however, building a cornerstone is timely and important.

Doo Won CHOI is a career diplomat and has been serving the Republic of Korea for 13 years in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Presidential Committee for the G20 Seoul Summit, North America Division II, Development Cooperation Division, and COVID-19 Task Force), the Ministry of National Defense (Arms Control Division and 5th Seoul Defense Dialogue), and the Air Force (Operation Command). He is also a research fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation of the Harvard University  Kennedy School of Government, and a reserve air force intelligence officer.

Lunch will be provided at noon. Presentation to begin at 12:15 pm.