Sea port cities' network for coexistence    

Nice to meet you.

I am Moon Soo Jeong, Professor and Director of the Institute of International Maritime Affairs,

First, I would like to welcome you to our website and briefly introduce the Institute. The Institute of International Maritime Affairs was established in May 2000 to promote research in the humanities and social sciences related to the sea, to foster interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration across academic fields, and to build cooperative networks among industry, academia, government, and research institutions. Through these efforts, the Institute aims to provide information and policy recommendations needed by both regional communities and the nation.

Over the years, the Institute has systematically conducted research on port city culture, ports and shipping, and maritime disputes. In particular, from November 2008 to August 2018, we carried out the government-funded Human Korea (HK) Project for ten years (total funding: KRW 13 billion; research agenda: Cultural Negotiations in Port Cities). From September 2018 to August 2025, we conducted the Human Korea Plus (HK+) Project (total funding: KRW 2.31 billion; research agenda: Marine Humanities—Problem-Solving Humanities), which significantly strengthened the Institute’s human and material infrastructure. Through the HK Project, the Institute pioneered the new academic field of Cultural Negotiations in Port Cities and has been disseminating Marine Humanities research globally.

Marine Humanities emphasizes that research on the sea’s physical dynamics (haemun) and research on human activities (inmun) require communication among disciplines and interdisciplinary approaches. Recent academic findings demonstrate that the physical processes of the sea and human activities mutually influence one another. Traditional East Asian scholarship focused on the relationships among heaven, earth, and humanity, but paid relatively little attention to the relationship between the sea and humanity. Marine Humanities is innovative in that it restores the classical triadic concept of heaven–earth–humanity while further emphasizing the expanded relational framework of heaven–earth–sea–humanity.

Within Marine Humanities, the sea holds a dual meaning. First, it refers to the natural world in which the sea’s physical processes unfold independently of human intention. Second, it metaphorically signifies receptivity—the “sea” as a space that engages with and incorporates the achievements of all academic disciplines, especially research on the material world related to the sea. Marine Humanities also aspires to be a problem-solving humanities that proposes solutions to contemporary issues emerging from the relationship between the sea and humanity.

In this context, from 2025 to 2031, the Institute has been selected for the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Institute Support Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea (total funding: KRW 2 billion) and is currently conducting the project Foundational Research for Arctic Ocean Route 3.0. This project is organized into research teams focusing on (1) the relationship between the sea and humanity in the Arctic Ocean, (2) international tensions and cooperative governance in the Arctic Ocean, and (3) routes and navigation. The Institute will also monitor and incorporate research outcomes related to industries associated with Arctic route development.

These research achievements are disseminated through programs that share and popularize research data, academic exchange initiatives that ensure sustainability and advancement, and diverse activities conducted through regional humanities centers. The researchers of the Institute hope that the research outcomes and methodologies outlined above will be shared, critically examined, and expanded beyond the boundaries of the Institute together with you.

Thank you.

Moon Soo Jeong, Ph.D.

Professor

Director, Institute of International Maritime Affairs

Principal Investigator, Foundational Research for Arctic Ocean 3.0