{{short description|American historian}} {{Infobox academic | name = John Delury | image = john delury.jpg | image_size = 200px | alt = | caption = After a seminar, 3-2 General Support Aviation Battalion thanks Delury, 2015 (cropped) | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | education = | alma_mater = Yale University | doctoral_advisor = Jonathan Spence | discipline = Chinese history | influences = Orville Schell<ref name=:"2" /><!--must be referenced from a third party source--> | workplaces = Yonsei University | notable_students = | main_interests = Modern Chinese history, U.S.-China relations, Korean peninsula affairs | notable_works = ''Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the Twenty-first Century'' (co-author) }} '''John Delury''' is an American East Asia scholar, with special interests in the history of China, U.S.-China relations and Korean peninsula affairs. He is professor of history at Yonsei University in Seoul.<ref name =a/>
==Background and education== Delury trained at Yale University, receiving a B.A. (1997), M.A. (2003) and a Ph.D. in 2007, with all degrees in history. He is Professor of Chinese Studies at Yonsei University [https://gsis.yonsei.ac.kr/gsis/index.do Graduate School of International Studies] in Seoul, South Korea.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dr. John Delury |url=https://www.ncnk.org/member-directory/john-delury |access-date=2022-05-13 |website=NCNK |language=en}}</ref> He had previously taught at Brown University, Columbia University and Peking University. He was the associate director of the Asia Society Center on U.S.-Chinese relations. He is the author of ''Agents of Subversion: The Fate of John T. Downey and the CIA's Covert War in China'' (Cornell, 2022) and co-author, with Orville Schell, of ''Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the Twenty-first Century'' (Random House, 2013). He is a frequent contributor to multiple journals and newspapers, including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Global Asia, 38 North. and The New York Times.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://gsis.yonsei.ac.kr/main/faculty.asp?mid=n01_04&act=view&idx=121|title=Welcome to Yonsei GSIS|website=gsis.yonsei.ac.kr|access-date=2018-09-25|archive-date=2018-09-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180926052009/https://gsis.yonsei.ac.kr/main/faculty.asp?mid=n01_04&act=view&idx=121|url-status=dead}}</ref>
His career as a historian took a self-described detour when he visited South Korea for the first time in 2006 to meet his wife's family. His area of interest had been limited to modern Chinese history. After further visits to Korea, he joined the Yonsei faculty in 2010 and made Seoul his home base. His academic interests have since broadened to include Korean peninsula studies, North and South; he has visited North Korea four times. He feels that his new interest in Korean affairs has broadened his views on China as well as U.S.-China relations.<ref name=:"2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/korea-and-china/1/steps/25907|title=Portrait of the historian as a young man - Lips and Teeth|last=|website=FutureLearn|language=en-GB|access-date=2018-09-25}}</ref>
After over a dozen years as a professor at Yonsei University he relocated to Rome for two years, then returned to Seoul. In 2023 he was the inaugural Tsao Fellow in China Studies at the American Academy in Rome. In 2024-2025 he was visiting professor of international history and politics at Luiss University and visiting professor of political science at John Cabot University. As of late 2025, he is doing "research, analysis and consulting" as he works on new book projects.<ref>{{Cite web |title=John Delury |url=https://johndelury.com/ |access-date=2025-12-23 |language=en-US}}</ref>
==Views on China== thumb|Delury at a lecture Delury states that knowledge of China's history is critical; without looking backward to grasp the forces at work for hundreds of years, it is not possible to know China today or its possible future trends. He posits that through China's recent history there is one constant: "the search for something, anything," that will restore China's greatness (fuqiang 富強, signifying “wealth and power”). China's challenge now is to reconcile its current success to its past sufferings, and relieve their historical sense of inferiority.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/wealth-and-power-chinas-long-march-twenty-first-century|title=Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the Twenty-First Century {{!}} YaleGlobal Online|website=yaleglobal.yale.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-09-27}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/books/review/wealth-and-power-by-orville-schell-and-john-delury.html|title='Wealth and Power,' by Orville Schell and John Delury|last=Kahn|first=Joseph|newspaper=The New York Times |date=18 July 2013 |access-date=2018-09-25|language=en}}</ref> Delury looks for historical parallels, such as the 1895 Gongche Shangshu movement, the 1919 May Fourth Movement, the Tiananmen Square protest of 1989, and the 2014 Umbrella Movement, threads which can be strung together, to chart alternate trajectories for the competing visions of China's future political and social order; he opines there are no right or wrong tides of history to take comfort in.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Delury|first=John|date=2014-10-06|title=Out of Tiananmen's Shadow|url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2014-10-06/out-tiananmens-shadow|journal=Foreign Affairs|language=en-US}}</ref>
While Mao had contempt for ancient Chinese customs, in the 1980s the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to use traditional themes and prominent classical vocabulary. A prominent example is "harmonious society" (Chinese: 和谐社会; pinyin: ''héxié shèhuì''), used as a socioeconomic vision in China and to deflect the problems of social inequality. Delury traces the history and usage of the Chinese word "harmonious" and is critical of the CCP, calling this usage "the pseudo-Confucianism of the CCP."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.hoover.org/research/harmonious-china|title="Harmonious" In China|work=Hoover Institution|access-date=2018-09-26|language=en}}</ref> He notes that Xi's political program of austerity is a reflection of a traditional political precept, dating from Confucius.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Delury|first=John|date=2013-08-07|title=Austerity with Chinese Characteristics|url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2013-08-07/austerity-chinese-characteristics|journal=Foreign Affairs|language=en-US}}</ref>
==Views on North Korea==
Traveling in North Korea evoked for Delury the sensation of time travel; Kim's charismatic dictatorship and the socialist ethos of Mao on the one side, with the grassroots marketization and consumer revolution of Deng's China on the other.<ref name=:"2" /> As with the history of China, he feels it is important to know the North Korean history, and he is critical of American officials who know little about this subject. He considers that without this knowledge American officials will find it difficult to understand and realistically deal with North Korea's nuclear weapons program.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_northkorea/790231.html|title=[Interview] Can candlelight energy spark new era of inter-Korean relations?|access-date=2018-09-26}}</ref>
Delury has several significant disagreements with President Trump's North Korea policy. President Trump has relied on China's influence on North Korea to exert pressure on the regime to give up its nuclear weapons, using trade with China as an inducement. Delury notes that since 1958 China has not had any meaningful impact on North Korea's foreign policy.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last1=Kuo |first1=Kaiser |url=https://supchina.com/podcast/china-north-korea-not-close-think-ma-zhao-john-delury-talk-history/|title=Why China and North Korea are not as close as you think: Ma Zhao and John Delury talk history - SupChina|website=supchina.com|language=en-US|access-date=2018-09-25}}</ref> Delury has described the sanctions as futile and counterproductive. He has argued that they are unenforceable and unlikely to stop North Korea's nuclear weapons program.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/01/opinions/north-korea-sanctions-delury/index.html|title=North Korea sanctions: Futile, counterproductive and dangerous|first=John|last=Delury|publisher=CNN|date=2 December 2016}}</ref> He has a more conciliatory approach, suggesting that the best chance for them to give up its nuclear weapons is by helping North Korean economic development. He recommends a gradual elimination of the sanctions.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/21/opinion/kim-jong-un-moon-economic-development-north-korea-denuclearization.html|title=Opinion {{!}} Kim Jong-un Has a Dream. The U.S. Should Help Him Realize It.|newspaper=The New York Times |date=21 September 2018 |access-date=2018-09-23|language=en|last1=Delury |first1=John }}</ref> As a deeply isolated autarkic society, he feels North Koreans "will eat grass" before succumbing to sanctions.<ref name =a>{{Cite news |last=Wong |first=Edward |date=2022-01-27 |title=Can Biden Avert a Crisis With North Korea? |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/27/us/politics/north-korea-biden-missile-tests.html |access-date=2022-09-13 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Talk of a preventive war had become part of the mainstream debate before the recent thaw in U.S.-North Korea relations; Delury feels that this should not be an option.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Delury|first=John|date=2017-08-22|title=Take Preventive War With North Korea Off the Table|url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/north-korea/2017-08-22/take-preventive-war-north-korea-table|journal=Foreign Affairs|language=en-US}}</ref> Delury has been described as the media's "go-to expert" on North Korea;<ref name=":1" /> he warns that news about North Korea tends to be sensationalized, and care should be taken in judging its veracity.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.apnews.com/95ffd16e43af4bca815a22f39813a8ac|title=Experts: US-N.Korea nuclear war unlikely, but risk is rising|work=AP News|access-date=2018-09-25|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/23/north-korea-reptile-media-kim-jongun|title=North Korea criticises 'reptile media' for saying Kim Jong-un ordered executions|last1=Branigan|first1=Tania|last2=McCurry|first2=Justin|date=2013-09-23|website=the Guardian|language=en|access-date=2018-09-23}}</ref>
In April 2020 Kim Jong Un disappeared from public view, and there were many reports of his death or incapacitance. Delury warned that it's very hard to know the truth in this type of situation. "Most of the time we get it wrong."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.albanyherald.com/news/world_nation/on-north-koreas-most-important-holiday-kim-jong-un-was-nowhere-to-be-seen/article_bfd72c01-e2e4-5d8a-b447-eb298a5ec8ee.html|title=On North Korea's most important holiday, Kim Jong Un was nowhere to be seen|agency=CNN|author1=Joshua Berlinger|author2=Yoonjung Seo|website=Albany Herald|language=en|access-date=2020-04-26|archive-date=2020-04-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200420164804/https://www.albanyherald.com/news/world_nation/on-north-koreas-most-important-holiday-kim-jong-un-was-nowhere-to-be-seen/article_bfd72c01-e2e4-5d8a-b447-eb298a5ec8ee.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==See also== *[http://sites.asiasociety.org/chinawealthpower/ Major themes of ''Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the Twenty-first Century''] *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdKIWBnxpeA Modern China, the creation of a global power]
==References==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Delury, John}} Category:Living people Category:American sinologists Category:Yale College alumni Category:21st-century American historians Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:American expatriate academics Category:American expatriates in South Korea Category:Academic staff of Peking University Category:Brown University faculty Category:Columbia University faculty Category:Academic staff of Yonsei University Category:21st-century American male journalists Category:Academics from Seoul Category:Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Category:American Koreanists Category:Scholars of North Korea