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The Dokdo/Takeshima Dispute between Korea and Japan: Understanding the Whole Picture *
Author(s) -
Cho Jinman,
Kim HeeMin,
Choi Jun Young
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
pacific focus
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.172
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1976-5118
pISSN - 1225-4657
DOI - 10.1111/j.1976-5118.2009.01030.x
Subject(s) - territorial dispute , pessimism , outcome (game theory) , argument (complex analysis) , law and economics , political science , law , sociology , economics , epistemology , microeconomics , philosophy , politics , chemistry , biochemistry
In the past, most studies on territorial disputes have been in the discipline of history and international law. In this paper, we expand the debate by adopting a utility‐theory approach to the issue of Dokdo/Takeshima. We introduce two different types of utility functions over the disputed islet, and show how moving from one to the other can alter the outcome of the dispute. We conclude that: (i) utilizing historical and/or legal argument alone will not resolve the Dokdo/Takeshima dispute; (ii) the different mixture of two different types of utilities changes the outcome of the debate; and (iii) the current configuration of preferences/utilities among Koreans and Japanese over the issue of Dokdo/Takeshima will never allow mutually satisfactory negotiated solutions to the dispute. Overall our diagnosis and predictions are pessimistic.