Nine books · Asia, the two Koreas, alliances, sport & economic coercion
Books
I have written nine books about Asia, the two Koreas, the U.S. alliance system in Asia, the politics of sports and Chinese economic coercion.
China and the United States have each turned economic interdependence into an instrument of coercion. Drawing on a dataset of more than 600 cases, Cha, Kim, and Lim propose a strategy of “collective resilience” to deter economic bullying and rebalance the global order.
Utilizing the first-ever linguistic analysis of North Korean nuclear doctrine, this definitive study of North Korea's ballistic missile submarine and sea-based missile programs fills critical information and intelligence gaps regarding the nation's nuclear capabilities.
[The Black Box] calls on privileged insights into North Korea. Peace, human rights, and change will only come about by adopting fresh approaches of inquiry, to which the authors of this important book summon us.The Hon. Michael Kirby, Chair, UN Commission of Inquiry on North Korea
The Black Box will surely transform how scholars and practitioners study and think about North Korea and the future of Korean unification.Andrew Yeo
Using innovative research methods from data scraping to ethnography, including microsurveys of ordinary North Koreans, Cha shines a light into the “black box” of North Korea and draws critical lessons for the possible reunification of Korea.
Korea gives the answer to the lingering enigma of how two extremely different systems have evolved from the same people. . . . A must-read.Ban Ki-moon, 8th Secretary-General of the UN
A highly readable history of the Korean peninsula. . . . A must-read.Anna Fifield, the Washington Post
Cha and Pacheco Pardo draw on decades of research to explore the history of modern Korea, from Japanese occupation and Cold War division to the present day, explaining the sharp differences between North and South and the prospects for unification. Now available in 10 languages, including Bulgarian, Danish, Dutch, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, and Ukrainian.
An up-close, insightful portrait. . . . The Impossible State is a clearheaded, bold examination of North Korea and its future.The Washington Post
Cha demonstrates an intimate familiarity with the regime's contradictions. . . . The thesis is clear: the world's most closed-off state needs to open up to survive.The New Yorker
Cha pulls back the curtain on this controversial and isolated country, providing the best look yet at North Korea's history, the rise of the Kim dynasty, its economy and culture, its human-rights abuses, and its nuclear ambitions.
Powerplay is an illuminating and important book that should help to guide policy makers as they try to cope with the greatest challenge to the American alliance system in Asia since it was created.Richard Bernstein, Wall Street Journal
Cha has embedded a lively narrative of post-World War II diplomatic history inside a thought-provoking analytic framework.Andrew Nathan, Foreign Affairs
A history and theory of the origins of the U.S. alliance system in Asia, and why Washington built a network of bilateral “hub-and-spoke” alliances rather than a NATO-style multilateral pact.
Victor D. Cha has written an essential guide to how and why the playing fields of the Asian-Pacific region matter to us all.Kurt Campbell
A fun book about a serious topic.Orville Schell
How sport has shaped politics, national identity, and diplomacy across Asia.
[Cha and Kang's] contribution is important for its frank discussion of the possibility of a nuclear attack and their presentation of potential courses of action.Concepción De León, The New York Times
This volume is an indispensable tool . . . for all those working in the field of Korean Studies.International Spectator
A debate between two scholars over how the United States should engage a nuclear North Korea.
Cha's work represents a landmark in the study of South Korea–Japan relations and a new starting place for all future studies on these crucial ties.The Journal of Asian Studies
Cha develops a very good framework that yields testable predictions about how U.S.–Japan–ROK relations should change.Robert Jervis, Columbia University
The award-winning study of the fraught logic that holds the U.S.–Korea–Japan security triangle together despite historical antagonism.