NAME

Foster-Carter, Aidan

POSITION

Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology and Modern Korea

ORGANIZATION

Department of Sociology
Leeds University

ADDRESS

17 Birklands Road

Shipley, West Yorkshire BD18 3BY GREAT BRITAIN

PHONE

44-7970-74130

FAX

44-1274-773663

EMAIL

afostercarter@compuserve.com

INTERESTS

BIOGRAPHY

Education 1960-65: Eton College. A-levels: Latin/Greek/Ancient
History/French/Economics.
1966-69: Balliol College, Oxford. BA (Hons) in Philosophy, Politics &
Economics, class II:1.
1969-71: Hull University. PhD study in Sociology, thesis on development
theory (unfinished)

Employment: universities 1971-72: Lecturer in Sociology, University of
Hull, UK.
1972-74: Lecturer in Sociology, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.
1974-97: Lecturer - since 1985, Senior Lecturer - in Sociology, University
of Leeds. (Part-time since 1993; will retire in November 1997.) Director,
Leeds University Korea Project.
1985: Visiting Associate Professor of Sociology, University of California
at Santa Cruz.
Teaching: courses on Third World development, Korea, comparative sociology,
nationalism, research methodology, social trends and movements; also adult
classes, and four prisons.

Employment: regular freelance All involve writing about Korea, unless
otherwise stated
1983-: Economist Intelligence Unit, London. Country Reports and Forecasts
on N&S Korea.
1987-: Oxford Analytica: writing regular briefs on Korea, plus annual
business conference.
1992-: Updates Conferences: chairing and speaking at A-level day
conferences, various topics.
1994-: Enterprise LSE: short articles on Korea for Emerging Markets Today
(IDEA)
1993-97: Author of monthly business/policy report published in Seoul,
successively as Korea Countdown (Merit Consulting, 93-95) and North Korea
Report (Breen & Gustaveson, 95-97).
1997-: Twice yearly reports on Korean politics (North and South) for
Jardine Matheson Ltd.
(Also various one-off consultancies for [eg] oil majors, HK lawyers, risk
assessors, et al)

Publications: books The Sociology of Development Causeway Press, 1985
(also in Malay).
Korea's Coming Reunification EIU 1992; North Korea after Kim Il-sung EIU
1994.
Articles: several dozen academic papers, book chapters etc on development
and/or Korea; some translated into German, Italian, Spanish, Turkish or
Japanese, as well as Korean. Also hundreds of shorter pieces of analysis
or journalism on Korea for (eg) the Economist, FT, Sunday Times, AWSJ,
FEER, Business Asia, Prospect, Hankook Ilbo, Der Ueberblick, et al.

Guest lectures, visits &c SKorea (16), US (12), Netherlands (6), Singapore
(2), N Korea (2), China, Hongkong, Japan, Australia, Canada, Denmark,
Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey. In UK: CBI, DTI, FCO, RIIA,
Oxford, Cambridge, and many more. In Seoul, hosts include IFANS, KDI,
KINU, KCCI, and the UK, US, French and Dutch CCs.

Broadcasting Frequent commentary on Korea for BBC radio and TV; also
regularly for radio in Austria, Germany, and Netherlands; occasionally for
6-7 more countries. Other than Korea: presented Nightwaves (arts magazine
programme, BBC Radio 3) three times during 1995-96.

Other interests Mainly music. Set all Shakespeare's songs for guitar at
age 17. Played semi-professionally in north of England clubs and East
African hotels. Occasional satirical cabaret.

Current plans To consolidate my position as "Britain's leading
Korea-watcher" (BBC R4).


Aidan Foster-Carter is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Leeds University in
the UK, where he has worked since 1974, and Director of Leeds University
Korea Project. Educated at Eton College and the universities of Oxford
(Balliol College) and Hull, he was previously a lecturer in Hull and
Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania in the early 1970s.

Arising out of a general concern with rival theories and models of
development, he has followed Korean affairs - especially North Korea:
originally as a sympathizer, but now more objectively, although not
dispassionately - since the late 1960s. For the past 15 years this has
been his major research interest, to the point where since 1993 he has gone
part-time at Leeds University in order to work full-time on Korea.

A prolific author, in addition to many academic papers and much journalism,
Mr Foster-Carter has written two book-length studies published by the
Economist Intelligence Unit in London: Korea's Coming Reunification:
Another East Asian Superpower? (1992), and North Korea after Kim Il-sung:
Controlled Collapse? (1994). He covers both Koreas regularly for the EIU
and Oxford Analytica, amongst others; and from 1993 to 1997 wrote a monthly
North Korea Report , published in Seoul and read by senior executives and
policy makers.

Aidan Foster-Carter has lectured on North Korea to university and/or policy
audiences in the USA (including Washington DC, Stanford, and UCLA),
Singapore, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, and
Sweden. In the UK, as well as many universities, he has been invited by
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Department of Trade and Industry,
the Royal Institute for International Affairs (Chatham House), the
Confederation of British Industry, the Royal College of Defence Studies,
and the Royal United Services Institute.

In Korea, he has addressed seminars organized by, among others: the
Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security (twice), the Research
Institute for National Unification, the Korea Development Institute, the
Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Korean Association of
International Studies, the Korean Overseas Information Service, the Seoul
Foreign Correspondents Club, and the UK, US, Dutch, and French business
communities in Seoul. Among universities, he has spoken at Seoul National
University, Yonsei, Ewha, Chung-ang, and universities in Pusan, Chinju, and
Kwangju.

Mr Foster-Carter has had contact with North Koreans since 1970, was first
invited to Pyongyang in 1971, and finally got there in 1986 and 1990. He
broadcasts regularly on the BBC World Service, and sometimes for (among
others) Dutch, German, and Austrian radio. He has two ambitions: to
improve his Korean, so that he can read not so much Kim Il-song chojak
sonjip as the sijo of Hwang Chini; and to travel by train from Pusan to
Paris. He expects to fulfill the latter much sooner than the former.