Fourth Estate is a student-run news media in George Mason University. They address diverse contents including ‘Faces of Mason’, a segment that introduces the GMU faculty members and students. The Voice, student-run newspaper in GMUK, decides to add this segment starting from this semester. We will bring out numerous stories from GMU Korea students and faculties. This will be a great opportunity for our audiences to get to know more about the university life here in GMUK.
What motivations led you to become a political economist in U.S. foreign economic policymaking on export-oriented countries of Northeast?
Basically, I did not know I would be an academic when I was young. Up until my master degree, my major was international security, but I shifted my focus to international political economy after studying in Boston. I shifted my gear because I began to get interested in how the world trade system works for everybody, specifically on these big exported countries, like Korea, Japan, and China. I also wanted to see how these countries are complying with the system. In order to broaden my horizon, I decided to live in those three countries in each year and went back to D.C. to figure out how the US trade policy was working. Then, I went to Singapore and that gave me a great opportunity to have practical insight in understanding the system.
What types of effort did you do in order to achieve your dream?
As I said, I did not imagine I would become an economist of this field because being a film maker was what I wanted to become. However, I gave up on becoming a film maker in college because getting to the next levels after submitting my videos to the festival was very difficult. However, I still thought that I had some talent in telling a story and what academics do is more than what film directors do by doing research based on non-fiction. Therefore, I decided to become an academic.
I saw that “Trade Wars & Currency Conflict: Northeast Asia States Responses to U.S. Pressures” was your first book manuscript. And speaking of that book, what is your opinion about U.S. imposing 25% tariffs on Chinese products and escalating a trade war?
To briefly introduce about my first book manuscript, it is still on the process of finishing the book because there are always something new issues coming up in everyday life. What I am trying to emphasize in my argument is the differences between political system between China, Japan, and Korea and how these factors motivate the trade policies decision. Going back to your question, I believe the trade war between U.S. and China is essentially about who gets to lead the world. From Trump administration’s perspective, they believe the trade deficit equals with loss of job. However, the consumption pattern and exchange rate effect trade deficit the most. The escalation of using tariff as part of their tool to coerce one another could go on for some time, but it is not going to resolve the main issue.
Lastly, where do you see yourself in five or ten years?
Humans are vulnerable to the times of change. The steps I went through did not come as I planned and I just went with it each time when something good opportunity came my way. However, all I can picture myself after five or ten years is to see myself as an author of at least one book. All I can be certain is that I will be doing a same kind of work that I am doing now and perhaps I’ll be having more bigger networks with other authors who are willing to contribute on a specific topic. Right now, we are preparing another journal article for international affairs and trying to do something about BREXIT and 5G.
Written by Sooyoun Kim | Staff Writer
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