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Completed Projects 

KOR-ON-EU

Korea and the EU Between the Corona Crisis and the US-China Rivalry

2020 - 2022

About KOR-ON-EU

The KOR-ON-EU project has primarily focused on the theme of how Europe and Asia, and particularly South Korea, tackled the ongoing Covid19 pandemic. The project was led by its Project Director, Dr Tereza Novotna (Free University Berlin) and included two project participants, Dr Zsuzsa Ferenczy, currently a postdoctoral fellow at NextGen Taiwan and an affiliate scholar at Vrije (Free) University Brussels as well as Dr June Park, currently Fung Global Fellow at Princeton University. The project also financed a student assistant, Ms Phuong-Ha Nguyen, a Masters student at Free University Berlin.

 

Network/research group

As a result, the KOR-ON-EU project has led to a creation of a network/research group of scholars and practitioners who have been researching various aspects of the pandemic (i.e. measures taken by individual countries in Asia and in the EU to combat SARS-COV-19, including border closures, lockdowns, masking, IT tools, vaccinations, etc.). This research group currently includes (apart from the project director and the two project participants) the following members from universities and institutions across Asia and Europe:

  • Dr Americo Beviglia Zampetti, European Commission, DG for Health and Food Safety

  • Dr Alessandra Cappelletti, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

  • Dr Evangelos (Evans) Fanoulis, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

  • Prof Stefan Auer, University of Hong Kong

  • Dr Andre Park, University of Hong Kong

  • Dr Nicole Scicluna, Hong Kong Baptist University

  • Dr Erwin Tan, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

  • Dr Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy, Vrije Universitaet Brussel and NextGen Taiwan

  • Dr Chiew-Ping Hoo, National University of Malaysia

  • Dr Dang Thi Viet Phuong, Institute of Sociology, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences

  • Dr Nguyen Duc Vinh, Institute of Sociology, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences

  • Mr Juan Blick-Paris, European Commission, DG for International Partnerships

  • Dr Unni Karunakara, Yale School of Public Health

 

The research group covers the following countries and territories and their approaches to combatting Covid19.

  • EU

  • South Korea

  • North Korea

  • China

  • Hong Kong

  • Taiwan

  • Singapore

  • Malaysia

  • Vietnam

  • global aspects (WHO)

 

Europe and Asia Fighting COVID-19 Together:

Mutual Lessons from the Pandemic

On 29 September 2021, the Project Director, together with the Korea-Europe Center of Free University Berlin, organized a one-day two-panel online conference on the topic of “Europe and Asia Fighting COVID-19 Together: Mutual Lessons from the Pandemic”. The first panel, focused on other countries in Asia, included some of the research groups members, such as Dr Ferenczy (project participant), Prof. Auer, Dr Zampetti and, in addition, Mr Anselm Kanwischer from forumZFD who focused on Cambodia. The second panel which covered the Korean peninsula included research group members Dr Park (project participant), Dr Tan, Mr Blick and, in addition, Dr Kee Park from Harvard Medical School. Both panels were moderated by the Project Director, Dr Novotna. For both panels, about 60-70 participants registered to follow the event via Webex and the video recording of both sessions is available online at the YouTube channel of the Institute for Korean Studies, Free University Berlin:​

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This organized conference has served as a starting point for the research group. As a follow up, the Project Director put together a panel proposal for the American Political Science Association (APSA) annual conference to be held in Montreal in September 2022. The panel proposal drew on the project and event above and included papers by the Project Director on the EU and South Korea dealing with the pandemic, Dr Ferenczy on Taiwan, Prof. Auer and his colleagues on Hong Kong and by Dr Hoo on Malaysia.

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Publications

The Project Director has also coordinated and drafted a proposal for a special issue for The International Spectator which is one of the leading international relations journals based at the Institute for International Affairs in Rome and whose focus is to combine academic research with policy-relevant studies. The proposed special issue is edited by the Project Director together with her two colleagues from Free University Berlin, i.e. Prof. Lee Eun-Jeung and Dr Christoph Michael and with one of the contributors, Chew-Ping Hoo (National University of Malaysia). The special issue proposal has been submitted to the journal editors and the project director awaits the decision by the editorial board about the acceptance of the special issue. Should the special issue be accepted for publication, the proposed timeline includes a delivery date of the manuscripts by the end of June 2022. The draft articles will need to go through a peer-review process before being published by the journal. A potential publication of the special issue would make for an excellent opportunity for further collaboration between the Korea Foundation (KF) and the Project Director.

 

The proposed special issue includes a contribution by the Project Director entitled “Fighting Covid19 in Europe and South Korea: Two Models of the Pandemic Management?” This contribution develops a policy chapter entitled “Korea and The EU Battling Covid19: Towards Cooperation to Improve the Global Governance of Health?” which the Project Director published in Asia Trends, Paris, Vol.7, Fall 2021, pp. 116-128 which is an in-house publication of the Asia Centre Paris and it is so far the key publication outcome of the project. The Project Director has also been invited by Dr Jean-Francois di Meglio, the director of the Asia Center Paris, to present her policy chapter at the Asia Trends launch event at the Cercle de l’Union Interalliée in Paris on 15 October 2021.

The Project Director has proposed to present her draft article for the special issue at the ECPR Study Group on the European Union (ECPR SGEU) conference at the LUISS University in Rome on 8-10 June 2022 at a panel on health governance. Project Director’s proposal has been successful and she will therefore present her paper in Italy in a few months’ time. Similarly, the Project Director has proposed to present her draft editorial for the special issue at the 52nd Annual University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES) conference at the European School of Political and Social Sciences (ESPOL) in Lille, France on 5-8 September 2022. Project Director’s proposal has been successful and she will therefore present her paper in Lille, France in September 2022. Given that the proposed papers are based on the KF KOR-ON-EU project, both of these conferences (ECPR SGEU and UACES) represent opportunities for a further collaboration between the KF and the Project Director.

 

The Project Director has also become a member of another research team which works on the EU-South Korea relations. Within this research group, the Project Director has teamed up with Professor Kim Nam-Kook (Korea University) with whom she has been writing a paper on the theme of Governance of Infectious Diseases and Human security in the EU and South Korea, heavily drawing on the work conducted throughout the KF KOR-ON-EU project. The research team includes four other EU scholars (Thomas Diez from University of Tübingen, Thomas Christiansen from LUISS University Rome, Katja Biedenkopf from University of Leuven and Ben Tonra from University College Dublin), while there are five other Korean scholars involved (Moosung Lee from Myongji University, Jae Sung Lee from Korea University, Sung-Won Yoon from Suwon University, Bong-Chul Kim from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, and Sea Won Chung from Pykyung National University). The group has so far held two closed online workshops in July 2021 and in February 2022 to coordinate the group’s work. It is expected that the research team will have a collection of papers ready by Fall 2022 and will submit them to either a journal on EU-Asia relations, or to a book publisher.

 

 

Other Activities Related to the EU-Korean peninsula relations

Apart from the work above which has been related directly to the KF KOR-ON-EU project, the Project Director also took part in various other activities closely linked to the advancement of the EU-Korean peninsula relations. The list (in the reverse chronological order) below includes all these activities and provides details where relevant.

 

On 10 December 2021, the Project Director participated in the International Conference (online) on the theme of “Connecting Europe and Asia: Security, Trade and Mobility” which was organized by Profesor Kim Sihong and the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS JMCE) and which commemorated the center’s 10th anniversary. The Project Director gave a presentation on the theme of “The US-China Competition and EU-North Korea Relations”. All contributions are currently being collated by the organizers and will be published in an edited volume by the HUFS JMCE in 2022.

 

On 24 November 2021, the Project Director chaired a special online lecture on North Korea entitled “An international NGO conducting cooperative organic agriculture projects in North Korea” by Andre Leu, IFOAM Ambassador, Australia which was co-organized by the Korea-Europe Center at Free University Berlin and KDI School

 

On 16-17 November 2021, the Project Director chaired several lectures which were a part of a week-long training 2021 G20 Global Leadership Program for selected graduate students and mid-career professionals on-site in Berlin which was co-organized by the KDI School for Public Policy and Management and the Korea-Europe Center at Free University Berlin.

 

On 25 October 2021, the Project Director gave a presentation entitled “What Can We Learn from the Helsinki Process and “Ostpolitik” for the Peaceful Coexistence on the Korean Peninsula?” at a panel at the World Korea Forum (WKF) in Stockholm, Sweden which was organized by the Korea Global Foundation and The Institute for Security and Development Policy (ISDP).

  • Link to the WKF:

https://isdp.eu/event/world-korea-forum-wkf-post-covid-recovery-conference/

 

On 15 October 2021, the Project Director participated in a closed session and chaired a panel discussion on the Korea-Visegrad Group Future Cooperation at a Conference on Korea and Central Europe Future Cooperation in Prague, Czech Republic which was organized by The Embassy of the Republic of Korea, Institute of International Relations (IIR), and the Prague University of Economics and Business (VŠE).

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On 11 October 2021, the Project Director chaired the 4th Annual Kim Dae Jung Lecture with Prof Dr Moon Chung In, former Special Advisor of National Security and Foreign Affairs to the ROK President Moon Jae-in which was organized by the Institute for Korean Studies at Free University Berlin

 

On 1 October 2021, the Project Director gave a presentation entitled “What Future for the EU-ROK Partnership in the Light of the US-China Competition?” at an online panel at the American Political Science Association (APSA) in Seattle.

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On 2 September 2021, the Project Director gave a presentation entitled “Back to the Future:

Lessons from the Cold War for the Korean Peninsula” at an online panel at the Korea Global Forum for Peace (KGFP) which was organized by the ROK’s Ministry of Unification.

            Link to the KGFP: https://kgfp.kr/?ckattempt=1

 

On 18 August 2021, the Project Director gave a presentation entitled “The EU and South Korea within the US-China Rivalry: What Future for the Strategic Partnership?” at an online panel at the Korea Political Science Association (KPSA) World Congress.

 

On 15 July 2021, the Project Director has been elected a Chair of the IPSA Research Committee 42 on the Security, Integration and Unification.

 

On 9 July 2021, the Project Director chaired a Human Security and Development Forum entitled “Talking (and Listening) to North Korea” with Glyn Ford, a former Member of the European Parliament and chair of its Delegation for the Korean Peninsula

 

On 8 July 2021, the Project Director led a Strategic Dialogue Workshop (colloquium for PhD students) in Berlin which was organized by the Korea-Europe Center at Free University Berlin and KDI School.

 

In the summer 2021, the Project Director has submitted a paper proposal entitled “From Connectivity to Sanctions and from Soft to Hard Power: How the EU and South Korea Have Been Responding to the US-China Competition” to the virtual panel at the International Studies Association Annual Convention (on-site in Nashville, US) which will be presented online on 28 March 2022.

 

Since summer 2021, the Project Director has been working on a book chapter entitled “From Connectivity to Sanctions and from Soft to Hard Power Approaches: How the EU and South Korea Have Been Responding to the US-China Competition” which will be published in: Bernhard Seliger and Ralph M. Wrobel (eds), Korea, the Iron Silk Road and the Belt and Road Initiative: Soft power and Hard power Approaches, Peter Lang, Berlin, Summer 2022, pp. 185-202

 

 
Other Activities Not Related to the EU-Korean peninsula
relations

Apart from the work above which has been related directly to the KF KOR-ON-EU project and/or EU-Korea relations, the Project Director also took part in various other activities closely linked to EU foreign policy, German politics and others. The list below (in the reverse chronological order) includes all these activities and provides details where relevant.

 

On 28 October 2021, the Project Director served as a discussant at the Opening Conference entitled “The Next Generation EU recovery plan and its global implications” which was held in the presence of the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission Josep Borrell and was organized The Royal Academy of Belgium and The European External Action Service.

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On 22-27 September 2021, the Project Director participated in the International Association for the Study of German Politics (IASGP) election observation trip of the German federal (Bundestag) elections as a locally-based observer.

 

On 28 July 2021, the Project Director delivered a lecture entitled „The Quest for European Strategic Autonomy” at the European Summer School in Prague for university students which was organized by the EUROPEUM think tank.

 

On 15 July 2021, the Project Director participated in the International Political Science Association (IPSA) conference as an observer to the panel on the EU Foreign & Security Policy

 

Business travels

During the KF KOR-ON-EU project, the Project Director undertook several business travels that were in support of her research as well as other activities explained in detail above. Some of these business trips were partly funded by the organizers of the activities. The Project Director undertook the following business trips:

 

 

Miscellaneous

The Project Director purchased a subscription to the NK News, an English news agency covering news about the DPRK (see https://www.nknews.org ) and to the South China Morning Post (https://www.scmp.com ), an English-language newspaper which covers Asia.

 

The Project Director has been attending Korean-language course (Sejong 3) which is organized by the Sejong Institue at the Korea Culture Center in Berlin.

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About KOR-ON-EU
Network/reseach group
Panel Conference
Publications
Other Activities Related to the EU-Korean Peninsula Relations
Other Activities not related to the EU-Korean Peninsula relations
Business Travels
Miscellaneous
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