EAI Middle Power Diplomacy Initiative Policy Recommendation 8

Author

Chaesung Chun is the Chair of the Asia Security Initiative Research Center at East Asia Institute. He is a professor of the department of political science and international relations at Seoul National University and director of Center for International Studies at Seoul National University. Dr. Chun is also serving as an advisory committee member for the Republic of Korea Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Unification. He received his B.A. and M.A. from Seoul National University, and Ph.D. in international relations from Northwestern University. His research interests include international relations, security studies, South Korean foreign policy, and East Asian security relations. His recent publications include Theory of East Asian International Relations (2011), Is Politics Moral? Reinhold Niebuhr’s Transcendental Realism (2010), and “The Rise of New Powers and the Responding Strategies of Other Countries” (2008).

Contrary to the expectation that the end of the Cold War and the resultant tide of power diffusion would bring about more peaceful security environments, East Asia still suffers from power competition. The combination of resilient power balancing and strengthening power transition, coming from the rise of China, complicates East Asian countries’ strategic options. Multilateral institutions seemed to prosper during the last two-and-a-half decades under post-Cold War settings, but increasingly they are being reshaped to reflect great power politics. Great powers, especially the United States and China try to design the bases of multilateral institutions in their favor and interests. Unsolved problems stemming from historical modern transition in East Asia come to the fore in the form of nationalism, territorial disputes, and historical consciousness.

On the other hand, global security environments are defined by emerging issues such as terrorism, cyber-security, piracy, and so on. The United States has wielded leadership under unipolarity, but the decline of American power in the 21st century hinders efficient supply of security public goods. This difficulty is combined by the so-called “return of geopolitics” in many areas, as manifested in Ukraine, the Middle East, and even in East Asia.

These changes provide South Korea with opportunities and difficulties. At the global level, South Korea with its increased national power and status, tries to play the role of a middle power. South Korea has actively participated in global peace operations and dispatched troops to many conflict zones. Also, South Korea has increased its contribution to global development aid. However, at the regional level, the Korean Peninsula, divided and situated at the flashpoint between China and the Pacific, becomes the focus of serious great powers’ rivalry and even military clashes. When uncertainty for the future prevails, South Korea’s foreign policy strategy options become highly limited. Under this situation, South Korea’s main purpose is to contribute to enhancing systemic stability and flexibility to absorb the impacts of great powers’ rivalry and to pave the way for resilient adaptation to new security surroundings. Theoretically, beyond the basic options of foreign policy (balancing, bandwagoning, hiding, hedging, bonding, and transcending), South Korea should develop a future-oriented, and advanced regional policy which can solve the dilemma of conflicting bilateral great power policies.

South Korea has devised and elaborated the concept of middle power diplomacy for the past several years. In the area of security strategy, it is composed of six elements: 1) to help great powers lessen mutual strategic mistrust; 2) to develop an issue-specific dispute settlement mechanism; 3) to develop multilateral institutions or to actively participate in and further existing institutions; 4) to preemptively import globally established norms to the region to set up the principle on which East Asians can solve problems; 5) to make a cooperative network among like-minded middle powers to strengthen their positions vis-à-vis great powers; 6) to be a co-architect in making and reforming the regional security architecture.

Policy Recommendations

Redefine the Role of the ROK-U.S. Alliance within the New Unfolding Security Situation in the Region and on the Korean Peninsula.

The traditional role of the military alliance is to deny the enemy’s attack and deter aggression, with a predetermined concept of security threats. The ROK-U.S. alliance has a clear security threat from North Korea. However, the North Korean situation seems to be in transformation, and the nature of the threat is also changing. Beyond the North Korean matter, security uncertainty at the regional level also complicates the role of the alliance. South Korea’s security strategy, anchored in the alliance, should be prepared to redefine the role of the alliance to cope with changing North Korean threats, and an uncertain regional future. The alliance should take the preservation and enhancement of regional security as its main function, and should contribute to the alleviation of great power rivalry. As South Korea and the United States strengthen preparedness, vis-à-vis North Korean threats, China’s concern for the military modernization of South Korea is growing. To alleviate Chinese concern, South Korea should manifest its strategic purpose and principle in clear terms and make explicit its vision for a more peaceful and unified Korea...(Continued)