The Korean Paradox: Domestic Political Divide and Foreign Policy in South Korea

This book analyses the dynamics of South Korea’s post-Cold War foreign policy through an interpretive approach, which focuses on non-material factors and on the influence of the domestic political traditions of conservatives and progressives on the decision-making process in foreign and security policy. In recent years, the growing economic interdependence among the countries in the region has not mitigated strategic mistrust and intense security competition, creating the so-called ‘Asian paradox’. This challenge has become a major concern especially for South Korea. Seoul, in fact, is ‘trapped’ between the necessary economic interdependence with China and the security alliance with the US: therefore, the ‘Asian paradox,’ in the last few years, has increasingly become a ‘Korean paradox.’ According to these premises, the aim of the present volume is to answer to three main and interrelated questions: How have progressive and conservative political traditions in South Korea influenced the country’s foreign and security policy? How has this domestic political divide influenced South Korea’s reactions to the ‘Asian paradox’? How have the orientations of these political traditions shaped continuity and change in the recent administrations? In order to comprehensively answer these questions, the book will be divided into two sections. The first lays the foundations of the volume explaining the theoretical framework of the interpretative approach, analysing the emergence of the ‘Asian paradox’ and examining how the different political traditions have influenced the country’s foreign and security policy. The second section deals directly with the main challenges of South Korea’s current foreign policy, with an emphasis on the specific characteristics of the progressive and conservative approaches to these challenges: the North Korean threat, the alliance with the US, the problems between economy and security in dealing with China, the complicated cohabitation with Japan, relations with Russia, and the emerging role of South Korea outside Northeast Asia.