Converging Histories: South Korea’s Martial Law Crisis in a Global Conjunctural Frame
Journal Article: Converging Histories: South Korea’s Martial Law Crisis in a Global Conjunctural Frame
Journal: Critical Asian Studies
Date of Publication: 07 July 2025
Author: Jamie Doucette, Reader in Human Geography, University of Manchester
How to Cite: Doucette, J. (2025). Converging Histories: South Korea’s Martial Law Crisis in a Global Conjunctural Frame. Critical Asian Studies, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.2025.2528101
Abstract: This article advocates the use of a “global conjunctural frame” to explore the martial law crisis provoked by the actions of South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol in December 2024. It does so by tracking ongoing discussions among progressive intellectuals in South Korea and the contributors to this thematic section about the nature of Yoon’s attempted self-coup and the structures that enabled it with a focus on how the event and its aftermath resonates with notions of late or untimely forms of fascism. The article shows how far-right reactions involve a disturbing reworking of an enduring Cold War politics across global, national, and everyday scales to amplify resentments and antagonisms brought apart partly through structural changes associated with neoliberalism. It then reviews some of the ideas about the creation of a Seventh Republic that have emerged during Yoon’s impeachment and that advocate constitutional reforms to address this troubling conjuncture and recognize the new solidarities formed in defending democracy in South Korea.
The full text of the article is available in a .pdf version here.
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