Cornerstone of the Nation

Cornerstone of the Nation is the first historical account of the complex alliance of military and civilian forces that catapulted South Korea's conjoined militarisation and industrialisation under Park Chung Hee (1961–1979). Kwon reveals how Park's secret programme to build an independent defence industry spurred a total mobilisation of business, science, labour, and citizenry, all of which converged in military-civilian forces that propelled an unprecedented model of modernisation in Korea.

Drawing on largely untapped declassified materials from Korea and personal interviews with contemporaneous participants in the nascent defence industry, as well as declassified US documents and other external sources, Kwon weaves together oral histories and documentary evidence in an empirically rich narrative. This narrative details how militarisation shaped the nation's rapid economic, technological, political, and social transformation.

Cornerstone of the Nation makes the case that South Korea's arms development under Park may be the most durable and yet least acknowledged factor behind the country's rise to economic prominence in the late twentieth century. Through an analysis that simultaneously engages some of the most contested issues in Korean historiography, development literature, contemporary politics, and military affairs, this book traces Korea's distinct pathway to becoming a global economic force.