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The alliance between the United States and South Korea in the second half of the 20th century was mutually beneficial, with Korea achieving rapid development as a key client state that supported U.S. trade and security ambitions in the Asia Pacific region. Although many of the features of the postwar alliance remain in place, the 21st century has brought a good deal of changing pressures and shifting priorities. Whereas once it was possible to participate in a US-centered world system that insured relative political and economic security, we now are living through a more uncertain period of transition in which older arrangements are coming under scrutiny. The purpose of this one-day symposium is to think about the impact of this shifting terrain on social and cultural matters, and to anticipate new challenges and possibilities as we move forward in a world that seems to present new formations, which demand from us new ways of living, thinking, and feeling. Bringing together leading thinkers on a range of topics, our focus for this event is on three discrete areas in which change has occurred rapidly—media, diaspora, environment—in order to make sense of these new formation.