Dr. Walhain attended the Annual International Conference on Economics and Security (ICES) in Stockholm, Sweden in mid-June 2013. The ICES had been running for seventeen years and according to the organisers, it “has become the main international forum for defence and peace economists, attracting participants from all around the world. It can boast some of the best researchers in the subject in its participants and has the support of Economists for Peace and Security (EPS), whose Trustees include a number of Nobel Laureates.” This year’s co-organisers were the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and the above-mentioned Economists for Peace and Security. Both organisations host research fellows from prestigious universities in the United States and Europe.

For Dr. Walhain, this was the first time attending a conference in Europe, and as another first, it was not a historians’ conference, nor an Asianists’ one. This was a meeting of mostly economists, plus political scientists, some other scholars, and a number of representatives from international organisations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Peace Bureau. Dr. Walhain mentions that as he had anticipated, it was quite different from his usual academic meetings.

The conference started with a very interesting address by the Chairman of the Governing Board of SIPRI, Göran Lennmarker, on the long-term socio-economic and political benefits of European unification over the last 50 years. Lennmarker is a member of the Swedish Parliament, and he was Chair of the Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, as well on EU Affairs. Needless to say he had a keen insight on issues related to peace and military expenditures in the region. His talk was followed by the keynote speech, which was supposed to be delivered by Prof. Ron Smith from Birbeck College (University of London), but ended up being read by one of the main organisers, Paul Dunne from the University of Cape Town.

Although Dr. Walhain’s paper patently failed to fit the format of the conference, it brought a healthy reminder that our researches ultimately deal with human beings and activities. His paper attempted to draw the contours of the “collateral profits” generated by the US military through its bases in Korea and the widespread smuggling and black-marketeering of US military goods in post-war Korea. In fact, the problem became so severe in Korea that senior US military commanders periodically warned that it could undermine American military readiness. However, he has found that there were tremendous economic interests countering these efforts, as it became clear that the Korean black market had turned into an extremely lucrative backdoor emporium for US corporations, such as the beer manufacturer Bush-Anheuser.

Dr. Walhain mentions coming out of the conference with mixed feelings with regards to the academic achievement, it was an extremely useful experience outside his field of expertise. Besides the scholarly aspects, Stockholm was a great venue: Among other things, Dr. Walhain visited the Nobel Museum, the Old Town, as well as the Vasa Museum.