South Korea’s middle power roles: Implications to emerging middle powers

Abstract

The importance of Korea’s positioning as a middle power comes as the international environment has undergone major changes, where the traditional US-led hierarchical power structure has given way to emerging horizontal transnational networks focused on diverse issues and diffusing power. This change in the global structure of relations has allowed middle power diplomacy to rise in prominence and has meant that the middle power diplomacy lens has focused squarely on multilateralism. However, the inevitable rise of China, coupled with an assertive rebalance to Asia by the USA, has complicated the foreign policy question for Korea and others in the region. Contextual changes may have allowed middle powers to take on greater roles, but uncertainty and complexity in power relations between the world’s two major powers has forced middle power nations to examine closely how network power derived from this new environment can be used to advance its own foreign policy goals. As South Korea is a widely accepted ally of the USA, what complicates this picture even further is the fact that Seoul has shown a greater desire to strengthen ties with Washington of late, a phenomenon facilitated by the recent uptick in North Korean provocations. Although South Korea is likely to play a facilitating role in US-China cooperation across a wide range of differing issues, it still remains to be seen how this will play out in the long term and in which contexts specifically. Additionally, on the global front, issue complexity has dramatically increased, as areas that were once separated, have become intertwined and interlocked via complex linkages, calling for fresh thinking in how to approach these proliferating and delicate issue areas. It is within this backdrop that the rise of middle power diplomacy as a viable foreign policy strategy has attracted much warranted scholarly and practitioner attention.