[Books of the Week] Wise Alliance Management and More

The Korean Financial Crisis

The Korean financial crisis is not a disaster that strikes suddenly overnight, but rather the result of accumulated policy choices and structural neglect over a long period of time. This is the central concern from which the discussion begins.

Hong Jonghak analyzes, based on Hyman Minsky's financial instability hypothesis, how risk factors accumulated in the Korean economy have overlapped and intensified, leading toward a crisis.

Rather than predicting the timing of a crisis, this book focuses on understanding the structural mechanisms that create financial crises and exploring the possibilities for alternative choices. (Written by Hong Jonghak | Ikkeun)

The Face of the Neighbor

This book, which begins with the philosophy of French thinker Emmanuel Levinas, does not address abstract norms but instead asks about our concern for and responsibility toward others in everyday life. For Levinas, philosophy is not about the 'thinking subject,' but about 'relations with the Other.' Ethics begins in the experience of encountering the face of another.

By combining Levinas's Other-centered ethics with the author's research on 'relational ethics,' this book translates today's ethical conflicts and the problem of relational breakdown into the language of real life. It argues for recovering a sense of responsibility toward others beyond self-centeredness, and rethinks justice in the community through the act of truly seeing one’s neighbor.

The message is that ethics is not a distant ideal, but begins with the act of looking at someone right beside us. (Written by Park Yeongyu | Wings of Knowledge)

Board the Palantir

This book interprets Palantir, a core company in the AI megatrend, not simply as a data analytics firm but as an 'operating system (OS) of the data era' that transforms the very structure of organizational decision-making. The author analyzes Palantir's founding, growth trajectory, and how its technological moat has reshaped the decision-making processes of governments and companies, all from an investor’s perspective.

Through the technological moat built in government and corporate settings and key platforms such as Gotham, Foundry, and AIP, the book examines how Palantir connects AI to tangible results and revenue structures, again from the viewpoint of an investor.

This is a guidebook for understanding Palantir’s intrinsic corporate value rather than its short-term stock price. (Written by Kim Jisoo | Book Ocean)

Beyond Amazon

This strategic analysis examines how Walmart, the world’s number one retail company, transformed into an AI-based digital platform business in the face of Amazon’s aggressive expansion. The authors highlight that over Walmart’s ten-year AX and DX journey, it was not just technological adoption, but 'customer-centric innovation' that was the decisive factor in success or failure.

Through Walmart’s revenue growth, e-commerce achievements, and its case of moving to the Nasdaq, the book demonstrates that even traditional offline businesses can mount a successful comeback through AI and digital transformation. It serves as a practical guide for offline companies seeking to make this transition. (Written by Yoon Mijeong and Son Daehong | Cloud Nine)

Wise Alliance Management

The South Korea-U.S. alliance has been the core pillar of security on the Korean Peninsula since the Korean War, but its fundamental character has been called into question during the Trump era. Amid cost-sharing demands and repeated pressure, this book asks: who is the alliance really for today?

Diplomatic expert Kim Junhyung, a former Chancellor of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, sees the changing international order not just as a crisis, but as an opportunity to reset alliance strategy. Wise Alliance Management is a strategic guide offering practical solutions to redesign the alliance for South Korean diplomacy at a crossroads. (Written by Kim Junhyung | Medici Media)

The Secret Strategy Unit X of Silicon Valley and the Pentagon

Victory in war is no longer decided by guns and tanks, but by AI, data, satellites, and drones. Focusing on Unit X, a defense innovation organization jointly established by the Pentagon and Silicon Valley, this book traces how the United States has reorganized its war and defense systems around technology, as seen through the eyes of insiders.

The authors show how Silicon Valley technology operates on the actual battlefield. Technologies such as SpaceX's Starlink, Palantir, and Google’s AI are already core infrastructure in modern warfare.

This book vividly examines how the defense industry is transforming into a matter of national strategy and a new investment landscape, through the rise of defense unicorns, the U.S.-China tech supremacy competition, and experiments in future warfare verified on the Ukrainian battlefield. It is an analytical work for understanding the future of technology, defense, and AI, which is closely linked to the security environment on the Korean Peninsula. (Written by Christopher Kirchhoff and Raj Shah | Wisemap)

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.