Standardizing Empire - (Power, Politics, and the World) by Patrick Chung (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

How the US military origins of global capitalism facilitated both South Korea's "economic miracle" and the decline of US industrial might

Standardizing Empire traces the origins of today's United States-led capitalist world economy. The nation's foreign policy during the Cold War saw two unprecedented developments: the continuous global deployment of US soldiers and the creation of a permanent worldwide military base network. In the process, the US military came to control the flow of billions of dollars, large-scale construction projects at home and abroad, the purchase of countless goods and services, and the employment of millions of soldiers and workers. In other words, the Cold War US military became the world's leading economic actor.

To illuminate the political and economic consequences of the US military's globalization, Patrick Chung focuses on its activities in South Korea between the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Chung shows how the Korean War and the subsequent militarization of South Korea became an important site for the spread of a new economic system, which he calls military-industrial capitalism. Sustained by providing the infrastructure and materials for the US military's globalization, military-industrial capitalism influenced the development of governments, corporations, and workers throughout the US-led "free world." As military-industrial capitalism expanded, more of the world depended on the physical and administrative standards used by the US military. Ironically, the creation of a globalized economy facilitated both South Korea's "economic miracle" and the decline of US industrial might.

To clarify how these broader developments transformed everyday life in South Korea and around the world, Standardizing Empire explores three of South Korea's leading multinational corporations today: shipping company Hanjin, steelmaker POSCO, and car manufacturer Hyundai. These case studies not only trace the companies' early ties to the US military but also explain how they came to produce, sell, and employ workers worldwide, including in the United States.

Review Quotes

"Standardizing Empire tells us an extraordinary history of neoliberalism forged in the crucible of US imperial warfare at its seemingly most mundane: the shipping container, the expense report, and the paved highway. Patrick Chung has written an essential and compelling story of how contractors, laborers, and engineers mobilized and contested new modes of capitalism in the shadow of the battlefield in Korea and Vietnam. With relentless attention to archival detail, Standardizing Empire reveals--in stunning fashion--how the violence of the permanent wars of the US empire are constantly reanimated in our everyday today."-- "Monica Kim, author of The Interrogation Rooms of the Korean War: The Untold History"

"In this stunningly innovative, breakthrough work, Patrick Chung reveals the ways that US military empire in South Korea propelled capitalist globalization. Drawing on deep, meticulous research in a vast array of US and Korean sources, Standardizing Empire brilliantly explores how the United States military's infrastructures and technical standards in Cold War South Korea--projected outward by its formidable purchasing power--came to format world-spanning networks of production and trade. This book is essential reading for historians of U.S. military empire, modern Korea, US-East Asian relations, and world-capitalist integration."-- "Paul Kramer, author of The Blood of Government: Race, Empire, the United States, and the Philippines"

"Patrick Chung's revelatory book illuminates the dark side of South Korea's economic miracle by tracing its origins to America's postwar basing empire. While the network of bases primarily served to project military power during the Cold War, Chung shows how it also generated supply chains, spurred infrastructure development, and codified production standards that not only propelled South Korea's rapid growth but also transformed the global economy--often at considerable cost to the working-class in South Korea and elsewhere. Standardizing Empire offers a compelling account of the entangled histories of US empire, modernization, and globalization."-- "Kornel Chang, author of A Fractured Liberation: Korea Under US Occupation"

About the Author

Patrick Chung is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Maryland, College Park.