“Enemy” vs. “Cooperative Partner”: A Study on the Identity Construction in the North Korea Policies of the Bush and Trump Administrations

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-577-5_109How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Bush administration; Trump administration; North Korea policy; identity construction

Abstract

This study, grounded in the Constructivist framework, investigates the differences in identity perception and their impacts on decision-making within the North Korea policies of the Bush and Trump administrations. It reveals that U.S. policy toward the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is driven not only by security and economic interests but also profoundly shaped by ideology and discourse. The Bush administration designated North Korea as part of the “Axis of Evil” and enforced harsh sanctions, while the Trump administration pursued dialogue through summits to redefine bilateral relations; this reflects fundamental disparities in strategic approaches, diplomatic methods, and perspectives on the global order. Through discourse analysis and case comparison, the study finds that the Bush administration’s hardline policies intensified tensions on the Korean Peninsula, while the Trump administration’s excessive dependence on personal diplomacy produced no substantial outcomes. The research notes that identity plays a pivotal role in international relations, yet it is constrained by leadership styles, domestic political dynamics, and global power configurations. As the first study to apply Constructivism to U.S.-DPRK interactions, it highlights the instability of identity construction resulting from overreliance on individual will. The study also emphasizes that China needs to grasp the identity-based strategies of the United States to navigate the situation on the Korean Peninsula and safeguard regional stability.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Tianshuo Yang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/15
TI  - “Enemy” vs. “Cooperative Partner”: A Study on the Identity Construction in the North Korea Policies of the Bush and Trump Administrations
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 5th International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities and Arts (SSHA 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 1063
EP  - 1077
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-577-5_109
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-577-5_109
ID  - Yang2026
ER  -