North Korea and Myanmar (Burma) are Asia's most mysterious, tragic stories. For decades they were infamous as the region's most militarized and repressed societ

Authoritarian regimes craft and disseminate reasons, stories, and explanations for why they are entitled to rule. To shield those legitimating messages from cri

In 2009, while working on a PhD in Seoul, Andray Abrahamian visited North Korea, a country he had studied for years but never seen. He returned determined to fi

The book examines the industrial growth of sanctioned nations in terms of their ability to foster trade partnerships with countries that choose to evade or not

Since the abortive 1988 pro-democracy uprising, Myanmar (formerly Burma) has attracted increased attention from a wide range of observers. Yet, despite all the