The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia

Like the Great Game struggles between Russia and Britain over India that existed for most of the 19th century, the “other” Great Game in East Asia over control of the Korean peninsula also gave rise to lasting rivalry and bloodshed among the regional powers at the turn of the twentieth century. Using her latest book, The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2023), Sheila Miyoshi Jager will illuminate some key aspects of this struggle to show how these earlier conflicts and rivalries set the course for the future of East Asia and the larger global order.

Sheila Miyoshi Jager is Professor of History and East Asian Studies at Oberlin College. Her books include, Brothers at War: The Unending Conflict in Korea, Ruptured Histories: War, Memory and the Post-Cold War in Asia (with Rana Mitter) and Narratives of Nation Building: The Genealogy of Patriotism. She is author of many articles and essays in scholarly and popular publications, including the New York Times, Politico, and Boston Globe.

The Washington History Seminar is co-chaired by Eric Arnesen (George Washington University) and Christian Ostermann (Woodrow Wilson Center) and is organized jointly by the American Historical Association and the Woodrow Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. It meets weekly during the academic year. The seminar thanks its anonymous individual donors and institutional partner (the George Washington University History Department) for their continued support.