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Benjamin R. Young

@dubstepindprk.bsky.social
3.2K followers 199 following 85 posts

North Korea analyst, prof of security studies & researcher of dictatorships. Wrote a book in 2021 on 🇰🇵-3rd World ties. Most importantly: dad & husband. Views my own. benjaminryoung.weebly.com

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Reposted by Benjamin R. Young
Texas National Security Review @tnsr.org · 06/08/2026
How did North Korea interpret the fall of the USSR? @dubstepindprk.bsky.social explains how Pyongyang leveraged the collapse to frame Juche as superior to Soviet socialism, paving the way for military-first politics. tnsr.org/2026/08/how-... #NorthKorea #ForeignPolicy #ColdWar
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Today is publication day of my latest book. I started writing it back in 2019 at a cafe in rural South Dakota. I wanted to write a book that was not centered on North Korea or diplomatic history, my areas of expertise. I hope people find it interesting: cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...
cornellpress.cornell.edu
Reds, Revolutions, and Rebellions by Benjamin R. Young | Hardcover | Cornell University Press
Reds, Revolutions, and Rebellions investigates how insurgent strategies from three revolutionary states—Mao's China, Guevara's Cuba, and Ho Chi Minh's Vietnam—shaped the tactics of armed movements...
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Reposted by Benjamin R. Young
Texas National Security Review @tnsr.org · 13/07/2026
What did North Korea take from the Soviet collapse? Benjamin R. Young argues Pyongyang drew one conclusion above all: strengthen ideological control and build nuclear weapons. Read now: tnsr.org/2026/07/savi... @dubstepindprk.bsky.social #NorthKorea #NuclearWeapons #NationalSecurity
Scholar | "Saving Socialism: What North Korea Learned from the Collapse of the Soviet Union" by Benjamin R. Young
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
I wrote a piece for @koreaeconinst.bsky.social about necropolitics and how that is the political logic driving the Russian-North Korean military alliance. I recently presented on this topic for a national security community and people found it interesting. keia.org/analysis/a-n...
keia.org
A New Risk Calculus for the Korean Peninsula - Korea Economic Institute of America
North Korea and Russia have radically different approaches to the value of human life and risk than the West—a reality that U.S. and South Korean defense planners must prepare for.
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Reposted by Benjamin R. Young
Bethany Wasik @bethanywasik.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
ICYMI: @dubstepindprk.bsky.social's stellar "Reds, Revolutions, and Rebellions" is now shipping! Check out more on this superb addition to the @cornellupress.bsky.social #Battlegrounds #MilitaryHistory series and line up for yours here: www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501.... I'll wait.
A book cover with main title at top, Reds, Revolutions, and Rebellions. A large red star is at bottom left, next to the author's name, Benjamin R. Young, at bottom right.
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Coming to (academic) bookstores near you this July. Published with @cornellupress.bsky.social
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
My forthcoming book, "Reds, Revolutions, and Rebellions: How China, Cuba, and Vietnam Transformed Guerilla Warfare," with @CornellPress now has a webpage! Scheduled to come out on July 15, 2026. You can pre-order now. www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...
cornellpress.cornell.edu
Reds, Revolutions, and Rebellions by Benjamin R. Young | Hardcover | Cornell University Press
Reds, Revolutions, and Rebellions investigates how insurgent strategies from three revolutionary states—Mao's China, Guevara's Cuba, and Ho Chi Minh's Vietnam—shaped the tactics of armed movements...
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
My piece for @koreaeconinst.bsky.social examines how the Iran crisis influences North Korea’s once close relationship with the Islamic Republic and why the North Koreans are so glad they have a robust nuclear arsenal. keia.org/the-peninsul...
keia.org
Iran Conflict Hardens North Korea’s Nuclear Posture - Korea Economic Institute of America
The ongoing conflict in Iran will harden, not moderate, North Korea's nuclear resolve, with implications for U.S.-South Korea security planning.
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Reposted by Benjamin R. Young
Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
... has experience in intelligence (broadly defined), please encourage them to submit an application. The position is NOT remote as it does involve some in-person teaching. Here is a link to the job ad: jobs.uncfsu.edu/postings/28285
jobs.uncfsu.edu
Lecturer/Adjunct Assistant Professor of Intelligence Studies
The Department of Intelligence Studies, Geospatial Science, Political Science, and History offers a variety of bachelor’s degrees in political science, history, and geospatial science, along with an a...
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Reposted by Benjamin R. Young
Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
My university, Fayetteville State University in North Carolina, is hiring a full-time lecturer for the Intelligence Studies program. The position is open to both MA and PhD recipients. If you know of anybody interested in teaching at the undergraduate level and....
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
My university, Fayetteville State University in North Carolina, is hiring a full-time lecturer for the Intelligence Studies program. The position is open to both MA and PhD recipients. If you know of anybody interested in teaching at the undergraduate level and....
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
I wrote a piece for the Korea Economic Institute blog about the Russia-North Korea alliance and why I don't think this is merely a short-term transactional relationship. It goes much deeper into social and cultural issues. keia.org/the-peninsul...
keia.org
How Russia Hopes to Help North Korea Blunt the U.S.-South Korea Alliance - Korea Economic Institute of America
The two nations are steeped in the same ideological brew of ultra-nationalism, hyper-militarism, and illiberalism.
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
From a purely historical standpoint, Cuban security agents guarding Maduro is not unprecedented in global affairs. But it’s certainly a throwback to the Cold War when small poor communist states carved out niches. For example, North Koreans once guarded Prince Sihanouk in Cambodia
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
In the grand history of dictators, I don’t think Maduro even ranks in the top 10% of worst all time. Sure, he was a corrupt asshole but Pinochet, Batista, and the Shah (all U.S allies) were even more repressive. So dressing this abduction as a victory for freedom is shallow.
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
If Trump tries to abduct Kim Jong Un, Pyongyang would launch an ICBM at Guam or Hawaii. So North Korea remains the big winner this weekend!
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
This is all going to come back to bite the U.S in the butt and the fact that so many folks are celebrating this operation is appalling. I guess we forgot that Iraq turned into a den for jihadists and Afghanistan turned into a hotbed for opium production.
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
My latest for Compact magazine In short, I think a U.S ground invasion of Venezuela would be incredibly stupid. And I think we are vastly underestimating the ELN in Colombia who would come to the aid of Maduro’s regime. www.compactmag.com/article/the-...
compactmag.com
The Coming Venezuelan Insurgency
At the height of the Iraq War, US forces confronted a relentless insurgency waged by fighters from a wide range of political movements and religious orientations, including ex-Baathists, Salafists, Wa...
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
You can now pre-order my forthcoming book, "Reds, Revolutions, and Rebellions: How China, Cuba, and Vietnam Transformed Guerilla Warfare," with @CornellPress. It is an intellectual history of leftist guerilla warfare from Mao to now. www.amazon.com/Reds-Revolut...
amazon.com
Reds, Revolutions, and Rebellions: How China, Cuba, and Vietnam Transformed Guerilla Warfare (Battlegrounds: Cornell Studies in Military History)
Reds, Revolutions, and Rebellions: How China, Cuba, and Vietnam Transformed Guerilla Warfare (Battlegrounds: Cornell Studies in Military History) - Kindle edition by Young, Benjamin R.. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Reds, Revolutions, and Rebellions: How China, Cuba, and Vietnam Transformed Guerilla Warfare (Battlegrounds: Cornell Studies in Military History).
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
media.tenor.com
Yes Very Sad Anyway Loki Sad GIF
ALT: Yes Very Sad Anyway Loki Sad GIF
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
North Korea is not mentioned once. China is mentioned over 20 times, Russia 10, and Iran 5. Did they forget Pyongyang has nuclear weapons and helped to bolster Russia’s war machine on a sizable level?
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
My latest for NK News
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Reposted by Benjamin R. Young
Lokman Karadag, PhD @drlokmankaradag.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
Inside North Korea’s Hidden Global Power Explore North Korea’s surprising global influence, from Africa to Latin America, and its unexpected ties with historic movements and leaders. www.youtube.com/live/7vlNIo-...
youtube.com
Inside North Korea’s Hidden Global Power | From Arica to Malcolm X, Black Panthers and Latin America
YouTube video by Dr Lokman Karadag
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Reposted by Benjamin R. Young
Lokman Karadag, PhD @drlokmankaradag.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
🎙️ This week, in my interview series on IR, I’ll be joined by Dr. Benjamin R. Young (@dubstepindprk.bsky.social) as we bring North Korea to the table for discussion. Subscribe to my YouTube channel and click the notification bell to get alerts when we go live. www.youtube.com/live/7vlNIo-...
youtube.com
Beyond Nukes: Inside North Korea’s Hidden Global Power
YouTube video by Dr Lokman Karadag
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
Very preliminary look at my next book cover. Entitled “Reds, Revolutions and Rebellions: How China, Cuba, and Vietnam Transformed Guerilla Warfare,” it is scheduled to come out in summer 2026 with Cornell University Press.
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
Famous Putinist sycophant Russian Singer, Shaman, meeting Kim Jong Un after his recent concert in North Korea. This renewed Russo-DPRK alliance is going to outlive the end of the Ukraine war. Military, diplomatic, and socio-cultural channels have all been strengthened.
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
I bet even the North Koreans hate him…
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
I contributed a review to this roundtable. It’s a Good book, with some problems.
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
My latest publication. A review of a new book on North Korea- Africa relations.
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Kim Jong Un is going to Beijing and sees himself as an equal international leader to both Putin and Xi. Despite North Korea’s small geographic size and isolation from the Western order, Pyongyang has always had an inferiority complex and sees its as a global player in international affairs
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 22/06/2025
Now, North Korea will really NEVER give up nukes. Let’s stop this CVID cosplay and accept North Korea as a nuclear state because that’s what it is, whether we like it or not.
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Unpopular opinion: we have learned to live with a nuclear-armed North Korea. We can learn to live with a nuclear Iran. Sure, it's not great but war is far worse.
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
The amount of really smart DC think tank types who are okay with another forever war in the Middle East absolutely baffle me. Because Iraq and Afghanistan worked out so well!? Now, let's go to war with a country of 92 million and has a rich proud history. Crazy people.
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
It’s finally official so I’m happy to say that I will be starting in a tenure-track Assistant Professor position at Fayetteville State University this Fall. I’m excited to be moving to North Carolina, being closer to my family there, and also teaching at an HBCU w/ a rich history.
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Well, Kristi Noem made up that she met Kim Jong Un so the North Korea reference might not make much sense to dog killer lady.
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
My theory is that North Korea re-closed their border to western tourists because the first batch for the marathon was a bunch of obnoxious YouTube influencers who put their cameras in everyone’s faces & likely endangered the safety of their tour guides on a near constant basis.
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
Muhoozi, son of Ugandan dictator Museveni, is one of the few people in this world to have attended military education courses in both North Korea and the U.S.
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
My latest piece: www.compactmag.com/article/puti...
compactmag.com
Putin and Kim Hate the West—and Mistrust Beijing
The Russian nationalist philosopher Alexander Dugin wrote an essay last June calling for his countrymen to adopt North Korea’s ideology of juche.
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
It seems that the Russian government has now indicted North Korea scholar, Andrei Lankov, for working with an “undesirable organization.” Good thing he lives in South Korea now. So Orwellian but so predictable from the Kremlin. www.svoboda.org/a/sud-v-mosk...
svoboda.org
Суд в Москве рассмотрит протоколы на учёного Ланькова и критика Гаврилова
Всего известно о пяти протоколах
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
My mother is currently battling brain cancer too. It’s an awful disease. Amidst all the political divisions and chaos, this moment last night was uniquely uplifting and human.
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
My most recent publication: “Even They Might Rise”: The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Solidarity with African Americans | The Journal of African American History: Vol 109, No 4 www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
journals.uchicago.edu
“Even They Might Rise”: The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Solidarity with African Americans | The Journal of African American History: Vol 109, No 4
Abstract During the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, Ayatollah Khomeini decided to release the African American hostages first as a demonstration of solidarity with the world’s oppressed peoples. Revolutiona...
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
“The Black Panthers and the Soviets: A Comparative History of Human Rights Movements." A fascinating forthcoming book by my former MA advisor, Meredith Roman. www.bloomsbury.com/us/black-pan...
bloomsbury.com
The Black Panthers and the Soviets
The contemporaneous movements for human rights that Soviet rights defenders and the Black Panthers waged during the 1960s are analysed in a comparative fashion…
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
American Juche has begun. It seems.
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
My latest piece for @nknewsorg . The language of "human waves" & "cannon fodder" suggests the DPRK troops deployed are unsophisticated & incapable of adapting, when in fact they are learning valuable lessons that have relevance far beyond the battlefields of Ukraine. www.nknews.org/2025/01/the-...
nknews.org
The myth of human wave attacks obscures what North Korea is learning in Ukraine | NK News
Editor’s note: The following article is an opinion piece by Benjamin R. Young, a researcher and analyst of North Korea and U.S.-East Asia relations. Views expressed in opinion articles are exclusively...
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
I'm happy to report that my article on the Islamic Republic of Iran's complicated relationship with African Americans is now published in the Journal of African American History. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
journals.uchicago.edu
“Even They Might Rise”: The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Solidarity with African Americans | The Journal of African American History: Vol 109, No 4
Abstract During the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, Ayatollah Khomeini decided to release the African American hostages first as a demonstration of solidarity with the world’s oppressed peoples. Revolutiona...
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
North Korea is apparently opening its Rason Special Economic Zone to international tourists soon. This is the equivalent of traveling to the U.S and only seeing Reno, Nevada.
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
Good to see that the Panda Express Postdoc is still around. "The Program in Asian American Studies (ASAM) at the University of Pennsylvania invites applications for the 2025-26 Panda Express Postdoctoral Fellowship in Asian American Studies." t.co/4hpWVwU8BN
t.co
https://www.higheredjobs.com/faculty/details.cfm?JobCode=179023453&Title=Panda%20Express%20Postdoctoral%20Fellowship%20in%20Asian%20American%20Studies
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
The article is good but the hypothetical letter is just… weird and not helpful.
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Reposted by Benjamin R. Young
Robin Christopher Brehm @rcbrehm.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
0/ Starting into 2025, North Korean state media published new agitprop posters with a clear message: "It's the economy, stupid! ...And the party!" This long thread examines each poster of the new set, primarily describing what we can see while adding a bit of context. I hope you'll enjoy!
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
Good piece on the implications of the Yoon fiasco in South Korea for U.S treaty commitments going forward. Somebody needs to ask these questions…
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Benjamin R. Young @dubstepindprk.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
Man, I get so much engagement on this platform versus X. I swear I’m throttled on that website.
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