This study seeks to understand the conflict and tension arising from a territorially divided nation with a strong legacy of ethnic homogeneity, using the Korean case for consideration. In doing so, the authors rely on a recent development in social identity theory to explore the dynamics and conflict inherent in intra-group social identification.

Published as part of the "America's Alliances with Japan and Korea in a Changing Northeast Asia" Research Project.

What can be said about the social and cultural characteristics of the Asian region as a whole? Are there, for example, traditional similarities that unify the region—something one might label “Asian culture”? Various scholars have seen an Asian-ness in such things as the way authority has been understood in the region 1 or, even more typically, they point to the Confucian heritage common to China and the nations on its periphery as a unifying characteristic. 2 At least one contemporary Asian leader, Mahathir Mohamad, prime minister of Malaysia, has argued for the legitimacy of a distinctly Asian approach to politics and society, one that is at odds with what he infers is a Western cultural hegemony in such matters. 3 Others, certainly the majority of scholars, have expressed skepticism with any interpretive framework that has attempted to embrace the entire region in cultural terms. Are there other ways to think of cultural connections that are not based in traditions or in religious, linguistic, historical, or other origins? Or is the initial question itself misplaced?