Katharine Moon provides a comprehensive version of her research on anti-Americanism in South Korea in Protesting America. Spanning several years of field research, Protesting America analyzes the rather diverse nature of anti-American movements in Korean society. Moon's research specifically focuses on the Kiji undong (bases movement), a social movement that criticizes and challenges the presence and politics of U.S. military bases in the country.
Where existing literature focuses primarily on nationalism and the generational gap within South Korean society as the primary reasons for anti-American activism, Moon criticizes the explanatory value of both concepts. She describes nationalism as “underspecified” and “overused” (p. 19) and argues that Korean identity continuously transforms within a changing international context of globalization. Similarly, Moon argues that the “age-gap” approach overlooks the changing attitude of the Korean youth by understating the recent trend of young Koreans becoming more cosmopolitan and pragmatic, rather than more aggressive or radical (pp. 52–56).
Having discussed the weakness of existing academic explanations, Moon analyzes the dynamics of the Kiji undong. The Kiji undong case study exemplifies how the power of local governments and civil society organizations (CSOs) shape inter-state relations between the United States and South Korea—particularly with regard to United States Forces Korea. Moon argues that Korean decentralization led to active demands by local governments to correct the local conditions of various camp towns—a claim that reflects the theoretical framework of Robert Putnam's “Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: The Logic of Two-Level Games” (International Organization 42, no. 3, Summer 1988). Protesting America's account of the interplay between local actors and the South Korean government demonstrates what Putnam describes as the “entanglements” of domestic and international politics. In this light, negotiations between the United States and South Korea regarding the Status of Forces Agreement appear to be influenced by local actors who have the power to at least informally “ratify” decisions made by the two national governments.
Chapter 3 focuses on CSOs of the Kiji undong, describing the division within CSOs by approach, leadership style, ideology, historical roots, and issue agenda. The base movement brought groups and individuals with different interests together to form a coalition of CSOs, a process driven by cooperation and “resource mobilization.” Here, Moon evidences the rational cost-benefit decision making shaping civil society activism, rather than the previously debunked “emotional and irrational eruptions of nationalist sentiments” (p. 111).
The Kiji movement was not unique to South Korea. Transnational networks of CSOs among other Asian nations—including Japan and the Philippines—were confronting similar concerns about hosting U.S. military bases. The environment became a major “framing device” for the international base movement, attracting broader public support and getting institutional responses from both domestic government institutions and the U.S. military (p. 166).
Moon also addresses gender politics and the base movement. While concerns of camp-town women remained “hypermarginalized,” “maximalists/male” anti-base activists were the “winners” of the civil society politics. In arguing for the entire withdrawal of American troops as a “fundamental issue” of national sovereignty, the issue of individual human rights was put aside (p. 187). To Moon, the gender bias exemplified in this story of social activism proves that gender discrimination impedes South Korean society's movement toward a consolidation democracy.
Protesting America provides a comprehensive analysis covering different, interrelated perspectives—local activism, CSOs' coalition dynamics, transnational activism, and gender politics—in understanding the anti-American base movement. Ultimately, for Moon, the deepening of democracy, issue salience, and the complex nature of civil-military relations best explain the social activism she has researched.
Moon's work corresponds with major theories of social movement and democracy. However, Moon's understanding of “government decentralization” as a contributor to local activism might overlook a powerful reality of South Korean politics—the existence of government-sponsored CSOs (ŏyongdanch'e). Moon's South Korean CSOs are, as conventionally defined, functioning within the civil society wholly separate and autonomous from the government's realm. In reality, there are significant and influential civic associations “corruptively” sponsored by the government to promote its policies, or to diffuse anti-government sentiment. Thus, determining how much civic activism results from democratization and government decentralization, and how much it owes to the recentralizing efforts of government-sponsored CSOs becomes difficult to measure. Moreover, Protesting America does not account for the fluid relationship between civic activism and the influences of the incumbent government's ideology. The ideological aspect of governing parties and incumbents has historically been a critical element of South Korean politics since the end of the Korean War.
These observations, however, are minor caveats. Moon's work makes an extraordinary contribution to the understanding of social movements, the U.S.-Korean military alliance, and the gender politics behind civic activism in South Korea.
