Breaking the Cycle: Recognizing Past Success and Making U.S.-North Korean Reconciliation a Reality

Abstract

Managing nuclear risk is arguably one of the largest contemporary challenges to regional stability in East Asia and the Middle East. Recent efforts by the international community, with the United States at the fore, to prevent nuclear proliferation to Iran and denuclearize the Korean Peninsula have seen few concrete breakthroughs. In the case of North Korea, an effective path forward can be found in the past by taking note of approaches by the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations over the past twenty years. This article will provide an analysis of policy by these two administrations towards North Korea in order to provide insight on what policies are dead ends and which ones offer possible ways forward with regards to the contemporary environment of the Obama administration.