Scholars have long examined the relationship between nation-states and their internal others, such as immigrants and ethnoracial minorities. Contested Embrace shifts the analytic focus to explore how a state relates to people it views as "external members" such as emigrants and diasporas. Specifically, Jaeeun Kim analyzes disputes over the belonging of Koreans in Japan and China, focusing on their contested relationship with the colonial and postcolonial states in the Korean peninsula.

Engaging colonial subjects on the move : colonial state, migration, and diasporic nationhood --"Who Owns the nation?" : Cold-War competition over Zainichi Koreans in Japan -- Beyond "Bamboo Curtain" and "Hermit Kingdom" : Korean Chinese between two socialist fatherlands -- Reluctant embrace and struggles for inclusion : Korean Chinese "return" migration to post-Cold War South Korea.