Institute for Corean-American Studies





Kathryn Weathersby

Dr. Kathryn Weathersby, ICAS Fellow, is a Visiting Scholar at the US Korea Institute at the School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University. For the last six years Kathryn directed the Korea Initiative of the Cold War International History Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, which mined the rich records on North Korea held in the archives of its former allies in the communist world in order to shed light on the evolution of DPRK foreign and domestic policy. The results of this research are available online from the Cold War International History Project website.

Kathryn received a Ph.D. in modern Russian history from Indiana University in 1990, with a second field in modern East Asian history. After the collapse of communist rule in the Soviet Union, she conducted extensive research in Russian archives on the Soviet Union's role in the Korean War and its policy toward Korea prior to the war. Kathryn has lectured widely on this subject in North America, East Asia and Europe. Among her publications are: "The North Korean Enigma: Back to the Future?" Ilmin International Relations Review (Seoul) Spring 2005; "The Soviet Role in the Korean War, The State of Historical Knowledge," in William Stueck, ed., The Korean War in World History (Lexington: The University of Kentucky Press: 2004): 61-92; "'Should We Fear This?' Stalin and the Danger of War with America" Working Paper No. 39, Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, July 2002; "Soviet Documents and Reinterpretation of the Origins of the Korean War," in Chung-in Moon, Odd Arne Westad and Gyoo-hyoung Kahng, eds., Ending the Cold War in Korea, Theoretical and Historical Perspectives (Yonsei University Press, 2001; "Stalin, Mao and the End of the Korean War," in Odd Arne Westad, ed., Brothers in Arms: The Rise and Fall of the Sino-Soviet Alliance (Stanford University Press, 1998); "Deceiving the Deceivers: Moscow, Beijing, Pyongyang and the Allegations of Bacteriological Weapons Use in Korea," Cold War International History Project Bulletin 11 (1998); "New Russian Documents on the Korean War: Introduction and Translations," Cold War International History Project Bulletin 6/7 (1996); and "To Attack or Not to Attack? Stalin, Kim Il Sung and the Prelude to War," Cold War International History Project Bulletin 5 (1995).

Kathryn's research has been supported by grants and fellowships from the Cold War History Project and the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Social Science Research Council, the Korea Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the International Research and Exchanges Board, the Norwegian Nobel Institute and the College of Arts and Sciences of Florida State University, where she was Assistant Professor of History from 1989-1995.




ICAS Web Site Links for Kathryn Weathersby:

North Korean Foreign Relations: Historical Roots of Present Patterns
2006 Winter Symposium
ICAS Bulletin of January 26,2006.





This page last updated 2/2/2008 jdb



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