Chung-in Moon, the James Laney Professor Emeritus at Yonsei University, speaks to the Hankyoreh. (Kang Chang-kwang/Hankyoreh)
Chung-in Moon, 74, the James Laney Professor Emeritus at Yonsei University, is very well connected. His network is so broad that he’s inevitably recognized no matter what sort of event he’s attending. And that’s true not only in Korea, but outside of the country as well.
As Korea’s best-known scholar of international relations, he’s an inveterate networker who glues together the IR communities in Korea and other countries. He remains highly active, despite being in his mid-seventies. He’s always zooming off to some conference or another.
Upon Moon’s return to Korea on March 29 after a month in the US, he spoke to the Hankyoreh about his new book “Why US Diplomacy Fails” (published by Medici Media) in a telephone interview, along with follow-up questions over correspondence.
Moon’s book would have been impossible if not for his vast network of connections. The book summarizes lectures delivered as part of the James T. Laney Lecture Series on the topic of “On America and the World” between September 2023 and May 2024. Moon was in charge of planning the series, recruiting the lecturers, moderating the sessions and summing up each lecture.
The James T. Laney Lecture Series was set up at Yonsei University with funding from the Pacific Century Institute in honor of the former US ambassador to Korea of the same name.
The lectures, and the resulting book, are arranged into three sections. First are historical and theoretical reflections on US foreign policy, which is analyzed by leading American scholars of international relations Charles Kupchan, Walter Mead and John Ikenberry through a progressive, conservative and liberal lens, respectively.
The cover of Moon’s new book “Why US Diplomacy Fails.” (courtesy of Medici Media)
The second section covers major issues in US foreign policy. A number of former US officials, including Susan Thornton and Karl Eikenberry, tackle big questions such as US-China relations, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the US’ new economic strategy and so-called foreign policy for the middle class, the Indo-Pacific strategy, and climate change.
The third section concerns the North Korean nuclear issue. The relevant scholars here are Robert Gallucci, who handled negotiations with North Korea, and Robert Carlin and Siegfried Hecker, the US’ foremost experts on North Korea’s nuclear program. Moon describes the North Korean nuclear issue as an illustrative failure of American diplomacy.
With its subtitle “Trump 2.0: The Varying Impact of the World the US Is Making,” this book is great for assessing the historical background of Trump’s unilateral behavior, which has plunged the world into a paroxysm of shock and terror in 2025, as well as its domestic and international political context. In short, the book can be described as a timely primer on American foreign policy.
Since these lectures were held before Trump began his second term in office, the book contains additional analysis from the 11 lecturers. Except for Walter Mead, their prognosis is generally negative: most said the policies Trump has adopted in office are having a negative impact not only on the US, but on the world.
While this is the first book based on the James T. Laney Lecture Series, it’s not the first time Moon has handled such a project. Moon previously worked with distinguished scholars and former officials of China and Japan to analyze those countries’ foreign policy.
When Moon was a visiting professor in Beijing in 2009, he summarized conversations with 23 Chinese scholars in a book called “An Inquiry into China’s Future,” which was published in 2010 by the Samsung Economic Research Institute (SERI, now known as Samsung Global Research). Then in 2013, he compiled conversations with Japanese public intellectuals such as Hitoshi Tanaka and Masao Okonogi for “The Current Mindset in Japan” (also published by SERI), a book he coauthored with Suh Seung-won, a professor at Korea University.
These collections of conversations with scholars spanning the ideological spectrum in China, Japan and the US offer another example of the breadth of Moon’s personal network.
Moon is currently working on the second and third volumes in his series of books based on the James T. Laney Lecture Series.
Now that the lecture series is complete, a monograph containing Moon’s analysis of state strategy among the countries of Northeast Asia will soon be published in the US and Korea. That will be the second book in the series.
The third entry will be based on a series of 10 lectures to be held between this summer and next on the question of whether it is desirable for South Korea to pursue nuclear armament. Those lectures will be delivered by Moon himself, as well as Siegfried Hecker, professor emeritus at Stanford University, and Peter Hayes, director of the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability.
“In my conversations with members of the Trump administration on my trip to America, I got the impression that they strongly feel Korea has been getting a free ride [on American security] for too long,” Moon said.
“The gap between perceptions of the North Korean threat and the Chinese threat is particularly concerning. South Korean overreliance on the US could have serious consequences,” Moon said when asked about Seoul-Washington relations during Trump’s second term.
“The Korean government needs to develop some autonomous strategic thinking. It needs to explore creative contingency plans for the worst-case scenario of American absence from the Korean Peninsula,” he said.
In regard to the Constitutional Court’s verdict in the impeachment trial of President Yoon Suk-yeol, which is scheduled for Friday, Moon said, “I hope it will be concluded in a reasonable way, and according to the will of an absolute majority of the nation.”
“In the end, foreign policy is an extension of domestic policy. The president’s voice on the international stage is determined by his level of support at home,” Moon commented.
In short, diplomacy struggles to gain traction without democratic legitimacy.
By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer
Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
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