In May – September 1939, Soviet and Japanese forces clashed in a small undeclared war that left 30,000 – 50,000 killed and wounded. The fighting reached its climax August 20 – 30 and coincided precisely with the conclusion of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact. Stuart Goldman’s book explores the link between these events and argues that this little-known conflict played a role in Stalin’s decision to sign the nonaggression pact with Germany, and also influenced critical decisions in Tokyo and Moscow in 1941 that shaped the conduct and outcome of World War II.

Meung-Hoan Noh (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies) will present on the relationship between West Germany and South Korea's industrialization during the Park Chung Hee era.

Ahmet Yükleyen demonstrates how Islam and Europe have shaped one another and challenges the idea that Islamic beliefs are inherently antithetical to European secular, democratic, and pluralist values. Through comparing five different forms of religious communities among Muslim immigrants in the Netherlands and Germany, Yükleyen’s rich ethnography shows that there is no single form of assimilated and privatized "European Islam" but rather Islamic communities and their interpretations and practices that localize Islam in Europe.

Over the past two decades, united Germany has accepted its political EU integration responsibility to move toward a European Monetary Union, to introduce the euro, and now to resolve the current Eurocrisis. There is little doubt, Ambassador J.D. Bindenagel argues, that Germany is obligated to support EU integration, constitutionally, historically, and morally.