Sheila Miyoshi Jager

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager's book (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2023) The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia, received the 2024 Robert L. Jervis and Paul W. Schroeder Best Book Award from the International History and Politics section of the American Political Science Association.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager's latest book The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013) was reviewed by the International Institute for Asian Studies (Leiden, the Netherlands).

On May 1, 2024, the Texas National Security Review, founded by University of Texas at Austin and War on the Rocks, published a roundtable review by four reviewers of Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager's recent book The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2023).

Stephen R. Platt reviewed Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager's latest book, The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2023), in The Wall Street Journal (22 Dec 2023).

The Korean edition of Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager's book, Narratives of Nation-Building in Korea: A Genealogy of Patriotism (M.E. Sharpe, 2003; Routledge, 2016), was published by Namu Yonpil publishers in October 2023.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager was cited and quoted by Korea JoongAng Daily in "Incheon landing was turning point for war, nation and world," a story marking the 73rd anniversary of the Inchon landing in the Korean War (September 15). Professor Jager is the author of Brothers At War: The Unending Conflict in Korea (Norton, 2013).

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager was interviewed on her new book, The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia, on the New Books Network podcast.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager published "Korea, the Kingmaker" based on her recent book, The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia, in the July 2023 issue of the British magazine, History Today.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager gave a talk at Stanford University on May 11, 2023, on her new book, The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern Eats Asia.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager introduced her new book, The Other Great Game, at the Wilson Center through its Washington History Seminar program on Monday, May 22.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager published her latest book, The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia, "A dramatic new telling of the dawn of modern East Asia, placing Korea at the center of a transformed world order wrought by imperial greed and devastating wars."

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager's review of A Continent Erupts: Decolonization, Civil War, and Massacre in Postwar Asia, 1945-1955 (Norton, 2022) by Ronald H. Spector was published in the New York Times.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager lectured on "The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea, Wars of Empires, and the Birth of Modern East Asia" at a conference on April 8 marking the 50th anniversary of Ohio State University's East Asian Studies Center.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager published a chapter in The Cambridge History of America and the World, a 4-volume collection published in early March by Cambridge University Press as part of their Cambridge Histories series. The four-volume reference work will cover a 500-year period in chronological order: 1500 to 1812, 1812 to 1900, 1900 to 1945, and 1945 to the present. Jager's chapter, "Competing Empires in Asia," appeared in Volume 3 (1900-1945) and discussed the history of the rivalry between the United States and Japan in Asia-Pacific that began at the start of the 20th century and ended with World War II. The entire series along with other Cambridge histories is digitally accessible through the Oberlin College library system under "Cambridge histories."

The Dutch edition of East Asian Studies Professor Sheila Miyoshi Jager's book Brothers At War: The Unending Conflict in Korea was released on June, 23 2020 from Uitgeverij Omniboek. It joins the U.S. and UK editions, both published in 2013.

Visiting Instructor of History Jiyul Kim and Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager recently published "The Lasting Legacies of Korean War Special Operations" in the special Summer 2020 issue of the Wilson Quarterly marking the 70th anniversary of the Korean War and a series of posts on "New and Old Sources on Select Korean War Topics & Issues" on The Wilson Center History & Public Policy Program's Sources & Methods site.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager appeared on a major new documentary, Korea: The Never-Ending War. The documentary, narrated by John Cho, examines the Korean War as part of a conflict that continues to this day.  Jager has served as an advisor of the documentary from its inception in 2015.  It is produced by WETA, the PBS affiliate in Washington, DC, in association with Ark Media and the BBC, and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Arthur Vining Davis Foundation, and PBS. It will be broadcast nationally at 9 p.m. on Monday, April 29 2019 on PBS.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager published on February 26, 2019 "What Trump Needs to Know About the North Koreans and Hanoi" in Politico.  The piece features her analysis of the historical relevance of North Korea-North Vietnam/Vietnam relations for U.S.-North Korea relations in light of the Hanoi summit.

Sheila Miyoshi Jager, professor of East Asian studies, received an International Security & Foreign Policy grant ($121,311) from the Smith Richardson Foundation to complete her book, The Other Great Game: The "Opening" of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia, which is under contract with Harvard University Press. The book provides a major new "big picture" narrative of the geopolitical context surrounding Korea’s “opening” in the late 19th century that will provide a deep historical context for understanding Northeast Asia's present situation, as well as over the long term.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager was invited as senior historian to the Wilson Center-Kyungnam University Workshop on Contemporary Korean History on November 16, 2018 in Washington, DC.  She gave the opening presentation on "Korea's 'Two King' Problem: Legacy of Conflict and Political Order in East Asia," which is derived from her current book project on great power competition in Northeast Asia at the end of the 19th century, and provided commentary on nine other papers presented by junior scholars.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager published a review of Travis Jeppesen's See You Again in Pyongyang (Hachette Books, 2018) in the New York Times.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager was quoted in a USA Today story on June 4, 2018 about the significance of major changes in North Korean top defense and military leadership as reported by various press in early June, fewer than two weeks before the unprecedented summit between the U.S. and North Korea in Singapore.

Visiting Assistant Professor of History Jiyul Kim and Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager presented a two-part talk on April 16 titled "Prospects for Peace and War in Korea" at Kendal at Oberlin. This was an updated version of a similar talk presented as part of the Oberlin College history department's "History Behind the News" series. Jager provided the political, economic, ideological, and cultural context while Kim focused on the military dimension behind the current situation on the Korean peninsula.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager was extensively quoted in a USA Today article that examined North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in light of the groundbreaking news that he extended an invitation to President Trump for an unprecedented summit.

Sheila Miyoshi Jager, professor of East Asian studies, authored "The Strange, Dark History of North Korea and the Olympics" in Politico Magazine. The article looks back at the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics and details its implications for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

Sheila Miyoshi Jager, professor of East Asian studies, was quoted in USA Today about the prospects for North-South Korean relations in the wake of the Olympics.

Sheila Miyoshi Jager, professor of East Asian studies, was quoted in the New York Times about the historic first match of the unified South-North Korean women's Olympic hockey team at the PyeongChang Winter Olympic games.

Professor of East Asian studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager was interviewed and quoted by USA Today in an article about North Korea. Read the article, "Is Kim Jong Un Crazy? The North Korea Leader is Just a Cold Calculator, Experts Say."

Professor of East Asian studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager was interviewed and quoted by USA Today in an article about North Korea. Read the article, “How Safe is the U.S. from a North Korea Nuclear Attack?”

Visiting Assistant Professor of history Jiyul Kim and Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager signed a contract with Cambridge University Press to co-author The Korean War: A New History for publication in 2022.

The book will consider the conflict as part of The Long Korean War that began with the emergence of competing versions of modern Korean nationalism in the early 20th century and extending to the present, with no end in sight. It will also cover new aspects and perspectives of the war coming from the fields of international, social, and cultural history as well as its memory among the participant countries.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager presented a talk on her current book project, The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia, on October 30, 2017 at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. as part of its Washington History Seminar Series.

Sheila Miyoshi Jager, professor of East Asian studies, was interviewed and quoted by USA Today in two articles about North Korea, "From Good to Bad: Five Possible Options for What's Next in North Korea-U.S. Standoff," and "North Korea Has Taken Provocatice Actions for Decades, but This Time Could Trigger War."

Professor of East Asian studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager talked to Neal Conan, host of the program Truth, Politics and Power that is broadcast on NPR around the country, about the history of the unending Korean War.  The episode aired on August 17, 2017.

Sheila Miyoshi Jager, professor of East Asian studies, published an article in Politico Magazine titled "What Trump Needs To Know About North Korea's History" with her view on the ongoing North Korean crisis.

Sheila Miyoshi Jager, professor of East Asian studies, was commissioned to write a chapter in Cambridge University Press' major new four-volume reference work, the Cambridge History of America and the World, which will offer a capacious and comprehensive account of American engagement in the world from 1500 to the present.

Jager will write the chapter on United States' relationship with Japan, China, Russia, and other countries, tentatively titled "Competing Empires in Asia" for Volume 3, which covers 1900-1945. The General Series Editor is Mark P. Bradley (University of Chicago) and Vol. 3 will be edited by Brooke L. Blower (Boston University) and Andrew Preston (Cambridge University). The series is scheduled to be published in 2020.

Sheila Miyoshi Jager, professor East Asian studies, signed a contract with Harvard University Press for the publication of her next book, The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia. The book is slated for publication in 2021 as a trade book.

Sheila Miyoshi Jager, professor East Asian studies, received a travel grant from the Northeast Asia Council of the Association of Asian Studies in support of research for her next book, The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia.

Professor of East Asian studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager was interviewed by Neal Conan, former host of National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation, for an episode on U.S. policy toward North Korea in Conan's new program, Truth, Politics & Power. The program addresses "the context and meaning that underlie" the "unprecedented series of questions and challenges" presented by the election of President Trump by placing "the new administration policies and practices in historical perspective."

Jager was interviewed along with Michele Flournoy, CEO of Center for New American Security and former undersecretary of defense for policy, and Ambassador Chris Hill who has previously held positions as ambassador to Macedonia, Poland, South Korea, and Iraq, as assistant secretary of state for East Asian & Pacific affairs, and is currently the dean of Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.

The interview was recorded at WOBC with assistance from third-year TIMARA major Joe Misterovich and second-year English major Cena Loffredo.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager presented lectures on her new book project The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia, 1876-1905 at the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Prof. Jager conducted the workshop on 24 Nov at the University of Cambridge on "War, Empire, and Modern Korea" based on her previous work Brothers at War: The Unending Conflict in Korea.

East Asian Studies Professor Sheila Miyoshi Jager consulted for and appears on the PBS American Experience documentary The Battle of Chosin—American-led United Nations troops were outnumbered and at risk of annihilation at the Chosin Reservoir by the sudden entrance of the People's Republic of China into the five-month-old Korean War. Available for viewing at PBS.org.

East Asian Studies Professor Sheila Miyoshi Jager has published a review of Hajimu Masuda's Cold War Crucibles: The Korean Conflict and the Postwar World (Harvard University Press, 2015) in History: Reviews of New Books 44.5 (Jun 2016), 159.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager served as the discussant for the panel "Unfamiliar Border: Rediscovering the Division of Korea and Its Unknown Stories" at the annual conference of the Association for Asian Studies, held in Seattle March 31 through April 3.

Seventy years after the 1945 liberation of Korea, many Koreans accept the division of Korea as a "natural" and familiar state of affairs. Instead of the superpowers' decisions about Korea's division, the four presentations discussed by Jager focused on the Korean people's experiences, choices, migrations, and life stories propelled by the crises of the division.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager published “Decoding North Korea's Bluster,” an op-ed on understanding North Korea's recent provocations involving a nuclear test and missile launch, in The Diplomat. The piece argues “seeing Pyongyang's provocations for what they really are could help avoid disaster" and explains how domestic—more than international factors—underlie North Korea's often perplexing actions. The Diplomat is a leading international current-affairs magazine for the Asia-Pacific region.

East Asian Studies Professor Sheila Miyoshi Jager accepted an invitation to join the inaugural advisory board of the Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C.

The advisory board is composed of eminent leaders in academia, public life, and the business community and advises the center on all programming aspects of its work and reviews the center’s activities on a regular basis.

Launched in 2015, the mission of the Center for Korean History and Public Policy is to provide a coherent, long-term platform for improving historical understanding of Korea and the US-Korea relationship and informing the public policy debate on the Korean peninsula in the United States and beyond.

The Wilson Center, chartered by Congress as the official memorial to President Wilson, is the nation's key non-partisan policy forum to inform actionable ideas for the policy community.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager reviewed Richard Boynton's The Invitation Only-Zone in the January 17, 2016, issue of the New York Times Sunday Book Review.

East Asian Studies professor Sheila Miyoshi Jager was the guest speaker at the Amherst, Ohio, Veterans Day ceremony on November 11. A mural honoring veterans of the Korean War was dedicated joining previous murals for World War II and the Vietnam War.

Jager remarked that the mural honors not only veterans who served in the war between 1950 and 1953, but also the millions who have served and are still serving today to defend South Korea in the "unending" war. She pointed out that the legacy of their service and sacrifice is the prosperous and vibrant democracy that is today's South Korea who plays a leading role in preserving peace and promoting prosperity in the world.

Jager's latest book, Brothers at War: The Unending Conflict in Korea, is a history of the fraternal conflict that has lasted for more than half a century. The book was recognized at the 2013 National Book Festival and was selected as one of the best books on Asia in 2013 by Foreign Affairs magazine.

See more information on the mural and the dedication ceremony from the Oberlin News Tribune, Amherst News-Times, and Cleveland.com.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager attended and presented at the Beijing Forum 2015, held November 6-8.

The Beijing Forum is an annual event that began in 2004 under the auspices of the Beijing Municipal Government and organized by Peking University. It is endorsed by the State Council and the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China and co-sponsored by Peking University, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education, and the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies. The forum is an international academic event that advocates civilizational harmony by bringing together the world’s most eminent thinkers in order to stimulate academic and cultural exchanges crucial for world peace and social progress.

This year's 3-day gathering brought together 300 scholars from more than 70 countries. Jager spoke on the panel Constructing a Road for Peace: Historical Responsibility and Multiple Memory and gave a presentation based on her current book project on the great power competition over Northeast Asia at the end of the 19th Century and its implications for peace in the region today.

The book Brothers at War: The Unending Conflict in Korea by Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager has been selected by Ms. Magazine as a book for learning about American wars in the inaugural War Edition of its “What You Never Learned About American History series.” The purpose of the series is to recommend “books that cover topics in ‘hidden’ history.”

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager gave a lecture on her 2013 book Brothers at War: The Unending Conflict in Korea on August 6 at the U.S. Army War College's U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Jager was invited to give the lecture as part of the Center's Brooks E. Kleber Memorial Readings in Military History series. This public series features recent works by noted authors of history. A video of the presentation is available on the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center website.

On September 24, Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager gave a talk at the Korean War 64th Anniversary International Academic Seminar held at Daegu, South Korea. The event was sponsored by Yeongnam University's Institute of Korean Unification and the Korean Army Academy at Yeongchon. Under the theme of “Beyond the Korean War and Toward Unification” the conference examined paths toward Korean unification. Miyoshi Jager's talk, based on her recent book “Brothers At War: The Unending Conflict in Korea,” provided the historical context.

Miyoshi Jager is currently in Korea for the 2014-15 academic year under a Fulbright grant to research her next book on the history of Great Power rivalry over Northeast Asia at the end of the 19th century.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager gave a talk at the Korean War 64th Anniversary International Academic Seminar held at Daegu, South Korea on September 24. The event was sponsored by Yeongnam University's Institute of Korean Unification and the Korean Army Academy at Yeongchon. Under the theme of “Beyond the Korean War and toward unification” the conference examined paths toward Korean unification. Professor Jager's talk, based on her recent book Brothers At War: The Unending Conflict in Korea, provided the historical context. She is in Korea for the 2014-15 academic year under a Fulbright grant to research her next book on the history of Great Power rivalry over Northeast Asia at the end of the 19th century.

Foreign Affairs magazine has chosen Associate Professor Sheila Miyoshi Jager’s newest book, Brothers at War: The Unending Conflict in Korea, as one of three of the most important books on Asia reviewed during the last year. The books were selected by Andrew Nathan, Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science at Columbia University. The other titles are David Shambaugh's China Goes Global: The Partial Power and Sumantra Bose’s Transforming India: Challenges to the World’s Largest Democracy. .