• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.780-791
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• 2013

This paper is concerned with the development of the silk trade and in particular with silk-ikat production. Early origins are explained and issues relating to the development of long-distance trade are discussed. The principal trading participants are identified and the focus is turned to silk-ikat production in Central Asia. It is recognised that the vast bulk of trade, along what became known as the 'Silk Route' (or 'Silk Road'), did not involve straight-forward or direct exchange between powers to the far east of the route and powers to the far west, but rather was done in stages between adjacent or not too distant locations. Diffusion of ideas was not therefore immediate and operational at one eastern or western extreme of a trading network but, rather, was a gradual process influencing adjacent participants, at stages between the geographic extremes over a long period of time.

• Strategy21
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• s.37
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• pp.144-176
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• 2015

In September 2013, President Park Geun-hye announced her controversial "Look North" policy, of which the most salient aspect is the "Eurasia Initiative". This comprises various proposals designed to overcome existing constraints by developing new markets and creating new economic partners in continental areas from which South Korea has been alienated since the end of World War II, and this dovetails nicely with China's One Belt, One Road Initiative. The concepts of the "Silk Road Rail Express (SRX)" and the "East Sea Rim Maritime Community (ESRMC)" have also been discussed. SRX is at present a purely symbolic railroad project intended to encourage individual, cultural, trade and diplomatic exchanges. ESRMC is a model for establishing an ad hoc community to promote regional economic cooperation around the East Sea. President Park's Eurasia Initiative will provide South Korean investment for the Northeast to complement Russian plans, like the "Northern Energy Road" being built by Gazprom, and Chinese plans, like the Chang-Ji-Tu Development Plan for the North Korean port of Rajin. China's trade, as well as its energy and food supplies, pass through the Strait of Malacca and the Indian Ocean, and are thus vulnerable to interdiction by India or the US. China is therefore trying to reduce its exposure geopolitical risk by establishing a network of corridors between the Belt and the Road to provide alternative paths. The "China-Pakistan Economic Corridor" and the "China-Myanmar Economic Corridor" provide such connections, and South Korea hopes that SRX and ESRMC can become part of a "China-South Korea Economic Corridor". This concept could do much to revitalize the underdeveloped northern provinces of China and Russia's Far East, not to mention North Korea. By linking up the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Trans-China Railway, the Trans-Mongolian Railway and the Trans-Korean Railway all these Asian countries will be connected to one another, and ultimately to Europe. An interim connection between China and South Korea using a rail-ferry has also been proposed.

• Asian review of World Histories
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.105-127
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• 2014

The Silk Road, a trans-Eurasian network of trade routes connecting East and Southeast Asia to Central Asia, India, Southwest Asia, the Mediterranean, and northern Europe, which flourished from roughly 100 BCE to around 1450, has enjoyed two modern eras of intense academic study. The first spanned a period of little more than five decades, from the late nineteenth century into the early1930s, when a succession of European, Japanese, and American scholar-adventurers, working primarily in Chinese Turkestan (present-day Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which comprises China's vast northwest) and China's Gansu Province (to the immediate east of Xinjiang) rediscovered and often looted many of the ancient sites and artifacts of the Silk Road. The second era began to pick up momentum in the 1980s due to a number of geopolitical, cultural, and technological realities as well as the emergence of the New World History as a historiographical field and area of teaching. This second period of fascination with the Silk Road has resulted in not only a substantial body of both learned and popular publications as well as productions in other media but also in an ever-expanding sense among historians of the scope, reach, and significance of the Silk Road.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.229-275
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• 2016

We study the effect of the high-skilled emigration rate on the growth rate of the source countries. We incorporate the foreign direct investment and the policy variables into the panel model and also their interactions with the high-skilled emigration rate, as they are related to the network externality that may be created by the high-skilled emigrants working abroad. We apply the static fixed-effects model and compare it with the results obtained in the dynamic panel model with system generalized methods of moments estimators. We find the negative effect of the high-skilled emigration rate by itself and in its interaction with the foreign direct investment only in the dynamic model. However, we find positive coefficient for the interaction of the high-skilled emigration rate and the civil liberties index, which holds across the static and dynamic specifications. This implies that the effect of the high-skilled emigration rate on the growth rate of the source countries can be positive, and the extent is larger for countries with 'poor' civil liberties. The developing countries with low levels of foreign direct investment inflows and 'poor' civil liberties can best benefit from the high levels of skilled emigration outward. Through finding significant interactions with other variables, we confirm that the high-skilled emigration should be considered along with other related variables in measuring its impact on growth. The implications offer suggestions for the international trade and aid policies.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.95-103
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• 2014

Purpose - Korea has a better geographical location than other nations in the Northeast Asian region. This means that Korea has an opportunity to become the center of international physical distribution in Northeast Asia. Korea should take advantage of this opportunity by exploring appropriate strategies to achieve this goal, assuming government willingness, with a view to capitalizing on the geographical advantage of the Korean peninsula and constructing a comprehensive physical distribution network system. If we prepare for this scenario, Korea could become the center of international physical distribution in Northeast Asia. Research design, data, and methodology - This study has the purpose of determining how shipping companies form partnerships with third-party logistics providers, and the relevant implications. The survey methods used were personal interview and a questionnaire distributed through e-mail, fax, mail, and telephone. A total of 600 questionnaires were distributed, out of which 285 were returned. Of the collected questionnaires, 10 were excluded because of insufficient content, leaving 275 to be used in the study as available valid samples. The data that was collected from these samples was analyzed using the data coating process and by employing a statistical package program. Results - Flexible policies, administration, and systems will be needed to create better business practices. In this dissertation, first and foremost, the results reveal that in order to become the center of Northeast Asian logistics, Korea must transition into a new paradigm based on the current economic and social systems that have stemmed from bureaucracy, inflexibility, chauvinism, and egalitarianism. Flexible policies, administration, and systems will be required to create better business practices. Domestic logistics corporations need to occupy a strategic logistics hub, create a logistics network, and activate value-added logistics business strategies by ensuring significant manpower and by building a logistics information system to strengthen their competitive edge, creating an improved system. Conclusions - In this dissertation, first and foremost, we point out that in order to become a center of North East Logistics, Korea should change to a new paradigm from the old one based on current economic and social systems that have stemmed from bureaucracy, inflexibility, chauvinism, and egalitarianism. More reasonable business laws, systems, and policies based on market-driven flexibility and transparency should be created. Moreover, social norms and rules should be reasonably established, to accomplish political and social security. Korea has to cultivate a culture of tolerance for foreign companies. This involves a change of paradigm for the development of the capital city and satellite cities. It will take a powerful task force or organization to plan and execute the vision that aims to meet these needs, accomplish the necessary goals, use the appropriate system effectively, and make Korea a key country in the field of Northeast Asian logistics.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.95-104
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• 2016

The Silk Route in ancient times served as a link between the World's greatest civilizations and as a source of knowledge, art, religion and philosophy. This network of ancient caravan paths formed the first bridge between East and West, where two different civilizations came in contact with their respective cultural traditions and religious beliefs, as well as their scientific and technological achievements. One of the main routes of the Great Silk Route passed through the Karakoram, linking Kashgar with Kashmir and the Gandhara regions. The Karakoram Highway connects the Chinese province with Pakistan and follows the ancient Silk Route, which connected the Heartlands of Asia with the Western fringes and further beyond the entire continent of Europe. Evidences of the history of humankind, ranging from Pre-historic times to the spread of Buddhism from South Asia to China and the Far East, is depicted in the rocky cliffs on the waysides and on rough boulders scattered in the upper valley of the Indus River and its tributaries. The ancient trade routes also carried scholars, teachers, missionaries and monks of different beliefs and practices, who met and exchanged ideas. The Buddhists as well as Zoroastrians and other missionaries all followed the Silk Route, leaving permanent footprints of their passage. The ancient greater Gandhara is situated in the North-West of the Indian Sub-continent, with the steep mountain ranges of the Karakoram, the Pamir and the Hindu-Kush bordering it and the dry areas of Central Asia to its rear. A number of races from Central Asia migrated to Gandhara because of its mild climate and plentiful farm products and fruits. This area was an entry point of Western Culture into India and at the same times the exit point of Indian Culture, including Buddhism, to the West. In Gandhara, the diffusion of different cultures developed an art form, during the 1-7th centuries CE commonly known after its geographic name as "Gandhara Art". The Buddhism's route of introduction into China originated in Gandhara, then reached in Korea and Japan and other countries. The fame of Gandhara however, rested on its capital, "Taxila" which was a great centre of learning. From the time of the Achaemenians, down through Muslim period, Gandhara continued to establish and maintain a link between East & West, as shown by material evidences recovered from Taxila and other Buddhist centres of Gandhara during the course of archaeological excavations.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.205-229
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• 2014

Global production networks (GPNs) emerged as multinational companies strategically relocated different stages of their value chain over many regions. Since GPNs require moving materials, parts, components and finished products across national borders multiple times, as well as coordinating it efficiently, they are intensified further within an integrated region. Within the region, developed countries which enjoy a comparative advantage in higher value-added tasks specialize in the production of ICT parts and components and exhibit high export RCA indices while developing countries show high import RCA indices. But, as developing countries upgrade technological capabilities and achieve industrial upgrading through participation in GPNs, their level of sophistication improves. East Asian countries have participated in GPNs to a greater degree when compared to countries in other regions because of a variety of factors. They have benefited much as shown by a significant increase in the level of ICT sophistication and export shares, which in turn led to uneven regional developments of GPNs in the ICT parts and components industry.