Field Notes from South Korea: Local Development in the Land of Securitized Peace

South Korean landscapes are profoundly shaped by the country's unending war with North Korea. Although the leaders of North and South Korea recently agreed to negotiate an end to the Korean War in the coming months, Korea's peace is tenuous and securitized, undergirded by massive military complexes on both sides of the border. From the anti-tank berms that cut through rice paddies in the northern border area to the United States military's Chinook helicopters that whiz back and forth delivering supplies to a remote missile-defense base in the south, it seems that no part of South Korea is free of reminders that the conflict between north and south is still unresolved.