Publications

[LAP] Cities and the Spatial Politics of Violence and Peace in Post-Accord Colombia

Latin American Perspectives, Volume 53, Issue 5, Page 123-138, September 2026. While cities and the urban dimension of violence and peace are a blind spot in the 2016 Peace Agreement, several developments in the post-accord phase, including the explicit incorporation of urban pea

[JPLA] Between Democracy and Authoritarianism: Identity Profiles of People Who Trust the Judiciary in Latin America

Journal of Politics in Latin America, Ahead of Print. Trust in the judiciary in Latin America is commonly read as an extension of general institutional trust and as a proxy for democratic health. This article argues instead that such confidence is internally heterogeneous. Using

The Shift in Aid Evaluation: How Contribution Analysis Complements the Search for Attribution

The Shift in Aid Evaluation: Why Contribution Analysis Is Replacing the Search for Attribution Professor Tommy Bang Sup Keum, Tech University of Korea A Methodological Turn in Development Evaluation Most official development assistance (ODA) interventions unfold through multiple

Climate Finance in 2026: From the Baku Unity Pact to a Tripled Adaptation Target

Climate Finance in 2026: From the Baku Unity Pact to a Tripled Adaptation Target Professor Tommy Bang Sup Keum, Tech University of Korea A New Collective Goal, Set in Baku COP29, held in Baku, Azerbaijan, produced what has become known as the Baku Climate Unity Pact: a new colle

[ROAPE] Life after Museveni

I have argued before that moving forward, Uganda will need General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of current President Yoweri Museveni. Or a person like Gen. Kainerugaba. This is not necessarily about the man, Muhoozi Kainerugaba. More that the trajectory of Museveni’s politics needs a

[ROAPE] Bought, held, and sworn

Somalia’s parliamentary election is not one election. It is 275 simultaneous, separate auctions. Each of Somalia’s 275 House of the People seats belongs to a specific sub-clan. Each is contested by a separate and distinct pool of delegates — assembled only for that seat, voting o

[ROAPE] African Labour and Liberation

African Labour and Liberation brings together the experiences of workers, trade unions and labour movements across the continent to ask what they can tell us about work, power and liberation today. We assembled this collection because of the surprisingly few recent accounts of th

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[ROAPE] The price of becoming your own boss in Uganda’s boda boda industry

It is said that Uganda’s vast motorcycle-taxi industry employs more men than any other sector outside agriculture. In Kampala alone, Uganda’s rapidly expanding capital city, estimates suggests there could be upwards of 300,000 moto-taxi (or boda boda) drivers currently in circula

ROAPE 2026 on Seed Sovereignty, Debt and Sahel Regimes

An IOCSS review of September 2026 ROAPE analyses on seed sovereignty, imperial finance and Burkina Faso's citizenship question.

ROAPE on Food Sovereignty, ODA and Regime Transitions

A concise IOCSS synthesis of recent ROAPE debates on seed sovereignty, aid dependence and political transitions in the Sahel.

ROAPE on Aid, Development and Regime Change in Africa

A concise IOCSS synthesis of ROAPE debates on foreign aid, productive capacity, and the political economy of regime change in the Sahel.

[ROAPE] Food security or seed capture? The colonial potato and Africa’s seed wars

It all begins with a potato. Not the kind that nourishes a nation in textbook stories, but a colonial potato. This potato was shipped, tested, rationed, pushed through mission gardens and military supply lines, and ultimately sold as progress.

[ROAPE] Charting the evolution of US-led imperialism, 1974-2026

제국주의 구조와 신국제질서, 외채와 구조조정, 군사 개입, 자원 통제의 관점에서 1974년 이후 미국 주도 제국주의의 변화와 지속성을 분석한다.

[ROAPE] The murder of Professor Jason Arday

제이슨 아데이 교수 피살 사건을 계기로 학계와 사회 구조 내 제도적 인종차별과 폭력을 비판한다.

[ROAPE] African migrant workers who cannot return

전 세계 이주노동 착취와 인신매매 시스템에 갇힌 아프리카 노동자의 송환·영사 지원 문제를 분석한다.

[ROAPE] Of heroes and hero worship? - The Big Conservation Lie

아프리카 보존 원조와 국제 환경 프로그램이 현지 공동체를 배제하며 식민주의적 보존 패러다임을 재생산하는 문제를 다룬다.

[ROAPE] The homophobia of Pan-African regimes

범아프리카주의를 표방하는 신군정들이 정당성 확보와 사회 통제를 위해 배타적 전통주의 담론을 활용하는 양상을 비판한다.

[ROAPE] Before there is anything to punish: Burkina Faso’s new citizenship question

부르키나파소 과도정부가 안보 위기를 명분으로 시민권과 종교 교육 선택을 통제하려는 권위주의적 전환을 분석한다.

ROAPE Watch: ODA, Regime Change, and African Political Economy

ROAPE Watch briefing on ODA, donor dependency, regime change, political legitimacy, and human rights in Africa.

ROAPE Review: ODA Dependency and Military Coups in the Sahel

[ROAPE] The extraversion of African academic journals

공여국과 ODA 자금이 아프리카 연구·출판 생태계의 외부 의존과 지식 종속을 고착화한 구조를 검토한다.

[ROAPE] Burkina Faso and the return of political economy

사헬 지역 정권 교체 이후 생산, 분배, 자원 주권 문제가 반제국주의 정치경제학 모델로 재소환되는 과정을 다룬다.

[JCA] What has Happened to the Poster Child: is South Korean Democracy Backsliding?

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[ROAPE] Cashew capitalism – part two

The dominant cashew economy had established patterns that outlasted independence in 1974. By then, Amílcar Cabral was already dead, assassinated by Portuguese agents in Conakry the previous year. He never had the opportunity to test his agronomic theories against political realit

[JPLA] Do Voters Reject Gay Candidates? Partisanship, the Far-Right, and the Electoral Effect of Candidate Sexual Orientation in Latin America

Journal of Politics in Latin America, Ahead of Print. In recent years, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights and candidacies have expanded across Latin America. Some argue that such progress may provoke a conservative reaction, including the electoral rejection of

[LAP] Dismantling or Drifting? The Politics of Bolsa Família’s Transformation under Brazil’s Far-Right Government

Latin American Perspectives, Volume 53, Issue 2, Page 126-146, March 2026. How did the COVID-19 crisis under a far-right government shape social policy responses in Brazil? This article examines the transformation of the flagship cash transfer program from Bolsa Família into Auxí

[ROAPE] The visionary political economy of Osendé Afana (1930-1966)

This year is the 60th anniversary of the assassination of Osendé Afana (1930-1966), the Cameroonian Marxist economist and national liberation leader who died fighting a guerrilla insurgency against the neo-colonial Cameroonian state.

[ROAPE] Kenya’s clean cooking crisis

The closure of Koko Networks at the beginning of February 2026 elicited an interesting range of reactions in the country. Some cast suspicion on the Kenyan government, claiming that the company was denied the letter of authorization (LoA) because it refused to pay rent to the pol

[ROAPE] French neocolonialism in Africa

This well-written and well-argued volume revisits French political history, especially its colonial (and neocolonial) aspects, which are a blind spot for many historians and political scientists. The intellectual pillar of the book is the notion of ‘electoral imperialism’.

[ROAPE] French neocolonialism in Africa: a history of electoral imperialism (De la démocratie en Françafrique – Une histoire de l’impérialisme electoral)

This well-written and well-argued volume revisits French political history, especially its colonial (and neocolonial) aspects, which are a blind spot for many historians and political scientists. The intellectual pillar of the book is the notion of ‘electoral imperialism’.

[ROAPE] Is France funding terrorism in the Sahel?

Virtually absent before the turn of the century, terrorism has swept across the Sahelian countries of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, transforming the region into the global epicentre of jihadist violence and accounting for nearly half of all terror-related fatalities worldwide. O

[ROAPE] The body keeps the score

Before there was a Commission, there were generations who died too young – not because of bad genes, but because of stolen land, unpaid labour, and a minority world that extracted everything it could and called it progress.

[ROAPE] The miners’ anger

Shops looted, police stations ransacked, roads barricaded, buses damaged, lorries burnt. The artisanal miners of Lualaba and Haut-Katanga provinces – the cobalt and copper heartland of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – are angry. In January 2026, Congolese media outlet

[ROAPE] Editorial – The South African Communist Party

This journal was founded during a period when the socialist transformation of newly independent countries of Africa and Asia was on the agenda and the existence of the communist party-led socialist state of Cuba was a reality in Latin America. We made no bones about aiming to pro

[ROAPE] The chess game of justice

The world’s wealthiest nations, holders of the strongest passports, the most militarily powerful and most diplomatically influential countries either voted no or refused to vote yes. Global South said yes. Global North said no — or said nothing, which in diplomatic language means

[NK Watch] Inter-Korean Sports & Culture Exchange — May 19, 2026

IOCSS monitors North Korean sports and cultural exchange developments. Weekly digest of inter-Korean engagement across sports, culture, and humanitarian channels.

[ROAPE] Africa-France Summit and the people’s counter-summit

On 11th and 12 May 2026, the French president, Emanuel Macron, together with his Kenyan counterpart, William Ruto, were co-hosting the Africa-France Summit in Nairobi, dubbed Africa Forward Summit.

[ASIA_MAIOR] Narendra Modi’s India ten years on: A second Indian Republic or a second Emergency?

Available also in pdf – Download Pdf To understand what is India’s internal political situation after 10 years of rule by Narendra Modi, it is necessary to consider diverse topics.

[ASIA_MAIOR] Indian Foreign Policy toward the US, China, and Russia under Modi: Rhetoric and Reality (2014-2025)

Available also in pdf – Download Pdf The election of Narendra Modi in 2014 is widely portrayed as a watershed moment for Indian foreign policy. This article challenges that narrative, arguing that the core parameters guiding India’s relations with the US, China, and Russia under

[JCA] The Return of Authoritarian Neo-Liberalism in Indonesia?

Volume 56, Issue 3, July 2026, Page 378-406 .

[JCA] The Rise of Authoritarian Statism in Indonesia and the Crisis of Crisis Management

Volume 56, Issue 3, July 2026, Page 349-377 .

[LAP] Brazil-China Relations Beyond the Dependency Myth

Latin American Perspectives, Volume 53, Issue 2, Page 39-58, March 2026. Throughout the administrations of Lula and Dilma, Brazil pursued a foreign policy aimed at diversifying partnerships, with a particular emphasis on South-South cooperation mechanisms and endeavors toward ref

[ROAPE] The candlelit state

Power cuts were a regular feature of childhood in Nairobi. When the electricity failed, my father would gather our family by candlelight and draw. On one such evening, he sketched a woman: a baby strapped to her back, a water pot balanced on her head, a basket of provisions carri

[ROAPE] Economic Instrument or Political Tool? Socioeconomic Outcomes of Nigeria's 2022 Currency Redesign and Cashless Policy

Paul Ani Onuh examines how Nigeria's 2022 naira redesign and cash withdrawal limit policy — ostensibly aimed at price stability and financial inclusion — became a weapon in elite political competition ahead of the 2023 election, with the costs of its chaotic implementation falling overwhelmingly on

[ROAPE] The Coloniality of Biometric Power: Global Digital Empire, Biometric State and the Control of Digital Subjects in Nigeria

Victor Iwuoha and Martin Doevenspeck introduce the concept of 'biometric coloniality' to explain how digital ID systems in Nigeria reproduce colonial relations of domination through a 'digital consensus' among the EU, US, China, World Bank, and major foundations. The biometric state is complicit in

[FOCUS_GLOBAL] Resisting the Weaponization of Interdependence

This article examines strategies available to states and non-state actors for resisting weaponized interdependence — the use of asymmetric economic dependencies as coercive instruments — identifying diversification, coalition-building, and norm entrepreneurship as complementary resistance strategies

[FOCUS_GLOBAL] Against the Tides: Uprisings and Protests in Troubled Waters

This article analyses the global wave of uprisings and social protests between 2019 and 2025 as a conjunctural phenomenon reflecting converging structural crises, examining why mass mobilization has produced disruption without durable political transformation.

[ROAPE] Bodies Under Surveillance in Senegal's Governance Crisis: Patriarchy, Anti-Gender Backlash and the Postcolonial Carceral State

Rama Salla Dieng argues that Senegal's 2026 anti-gender legislation — raising prison sentences for same-sex relations to ten years — is not a cultural or religious phenomenon but a political displacement strategy by a government in fiscal crisis, operating through patriarchal governance structures w

[ROAPE] Nigeria's Forest Bandits and the Geography of Governance

Ethan Woolf Moñino argues that bandit groups in Northwest Nigeria have built an alternative economic system that extracts revenue through territorial control and systematic taxation. Banditry is not a cultural or ethnic phenomenon but a rational, profit-seeking enterprise filling the governance vacu

[ROAPE] Evolving and Differentiated Strategy? A Network Approach to Chinese Development Finance in Africa

Sara Caria and Stefano Ghinoi apply social network analysis to AidData to show that Chinese development finance in Africa is differentiated and evolving — not monolithic. The Belt and Road Initiative marks a structural turning point, while natural resource endowments are not the primary driver of Ch

Sports × AI: Fair Play, Embodiment, and the Problem of Algorithmic Judgment

A philosophical introduction to IOCSS research on sport, artificial intelligence, fairness, embodiment, and institutional trust.

Culture × AI: Creativity, Identity, and the Hermeneutics of Synthetic Media

A philosophical introduction to IOCSS research on AI-generated culture, authorship, identity, aesthetics, and interpretation.

Special Commentary | Sports Ethics in the Era of Physical AI: A Korean Perspective

A Korean perspective on sports ethics under physical AI and institutional modernization.

IOCSS Research Bulletin | March 2026: AI and the Future of Sport Governance

March 2026 bulletin on AI governance in sport, institutional design, and implementation standards.

2023 International Sports Science Forum Asia — Inaugural Seoul Forum

IOCSS hosted the inaugural International Sports Science Forum Asia in Seoul (December 2023), convening senior representatives from Korea, China, and Japan to advance trilateral sports science cooperation.

Artificial Intelligence and Human Values: Toward a Philosophy of Machine Ethics

As AI systems become increasingly capable and consequential, the question of how to align them with human values becomes urgent. This paper surveys the philosophical landscape of AI ethics, from consequentialist frameworks to virtue-theoretic approaches.

DPRK Humanitarian Conditions: Evidence, Analysis, and the Challenges of Independent Research

Assessing what is known—and not known—about humanitarian conditions inside North Korea, and the methodological challenges that confront researchers working without direct access.

Korean Aesthetic Philosophy: From Traditional Forms to Contemporary Expression

An introduction to the philosophical dimensions of Korean aesthetics—from the concept of han in traditional music to the global phenomenon of Korean Wave (Hallyu)—and what they reveal about cultural identity and civilizational continuity.

The Ethics of Competition: Excellence, Fairness, and the Meaning of Sport

What do we owe each other as competitors? This paper examines foundational questions in sports ethics—the nature of fair play, the purpose of rules, and whether winning is the true goal of sport.

Sport Diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula: History, Limits, and Future Prospects

An analysis of inter-Korean sporting engagement from the 1991 unified table tennis team to the 2018 Olympic delegation, examining what sport can—and cannot—achieve in political diplomacy.

Governing the Ungovernable: AI Ethics Frameworks and the Limits of Anticipatory Regulation

Current AI governance frameworks face fundamental limitations. This analysis proposes principles for more robust regulation of autonomous AI systems.

The Hermit Kingdom Opens Its Gates: Sport Diplomacy and North Korea's International Engagement

How athletic participation—from the 1988 Seoul Olympics to the 2018 PyeongChang Games—has shaped Pyongyang's strategic engagement with the international community, and what this reveals about the relationship between sport, sovereignty, and statecraft in Northeast Asia.

Enhancement, Authenticity, and the Sporting Ideal: Towards a Coherent Ethics of Athletic Performance

The growing sophistication of performance-enhancing technologies—from pharmacological interventions to genetic modification, from advanced prosthetics to neural interfaces—poses urgent questions for the ethics of sport that cannot be resolved by simple appeals to fairness or tradition.

Aesthetic Distance and Political Commitment: Rethinking the Philosophy of Engaged Art

The relationship between aesthetic autonomy and political engagement remains one of the central unresolved questions in the philosophy of art. This paper revisits the debate through the lens of contemporary East Asian artistic practice.

Divided Memories: Heritage Preservation as Political Practice in the Korean Context

How states remember and preserve their cultural heritage is never politically innocent. In divided Korea, the politics of heritage takes on particular intensity: both states claim a shared civilisational legacy while constructing radically different accounts of its meaning and its proper custodians.

Cultural Memory and the Politics of Heritage in Divided Korea

Excellence and Its Discontents: A Philosophical Inquiry into Athletic Achievement in the Age of Enhancement

Sport as Soft Power: Inter-Korean Athletic Exchange and the Politics of Reconciliation

Coming soon

Sport Diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula: Track 1.5 Approaches

A policy-oriented examination of informal diplomacy channels and sport-led trust building across divided political contexts. The paper identifies Track 1.5 institutional pathways — involving both official and non-official actors — as a potentially durable mechanism for sustained inter-Korean exchange, drawing on lessons from international sport governance and Northeast Asian case studies.

AI Ethics Frameworks in Global Scientific Governance

An interdisciplinary governance model connecting technical accountability, public legitimacy, and international institutional design in the era of large-scale AI deployment. The paper maps existing ethical frameworks against emerging governance gaps, proposing a multi-stakeholder accountability architecture for transnational scientific systems.

DPRK Humanitarian Conditions: A 2025 Field Assessment

A consolidated review of humanitarian indicators, aid access pathways, and policy implications for 2025. Combining field interviews, regional comparative analysis, and secondary data synthesis, the assessment provides a ground-level account of conditions and identifies strategic implications for international engagement with humanitarian actors operating near the Korean Peninsula.

Physical Culture as a Medium of Social Trust: Evidence from Northeast Asia

This brief examines how sport institutions function as infrastructure for social cohesion and civic trust, drawing on comparative data from South Korea, Japan, and Estonia. It argues that sport programmes designed around inclusion and accessibility deliver measurable social capital effects that extend beyond the arena of sport itself.

Tradition, Performance, and Public Discourse in Contemporary Korea

This paper examines how artistic and cultural practice mediates collective identity and public argument in periods of rapid social transition. Using examples from contemporary Korean performance arts and institutional cultural policy, the analysis develops a framework for understanding aesthetic institutions as sites of civic meaning-making.

Research Integrity in International Scientific Collaboration

A comparative review of institutional safeguards for transparency, authorship, and accountability in transnational research networks. The brief analyses recent cases of integrity failure in international collaborative projects and proposes structural reforms to peer review, data sharing, and institutional responsibility allocation.

Ethics of Elite Performance and Institutional Responsibility

An inquiry into athlete welfare, institutional obligations, and the philosophical limits of performance-centred systems. Drawing on recent scandals in elite sport governance, the paper develops a normative framework that balances the pursuit of athletic excellence against duties of care owed to athletes as persons.

Cross-Border Civil Society and Policy Mediation on the Korean Peninsula

A study of how civil society organisations operate at the boundary zones of inter-Korean policy, and how their activities create or constrain space for political dialogue. The paper analyses three IOCSS-supported contact programmes and derives lessons for the design of future civilian exchange initiatives.