International Politics And Security In Korea

This comprehensive book explains that while world politics has entered the post-Cold War era since the late 1980s, the Korean peninsula has not. Diplomatic relations have yet to be established between North Korea, the US and Japan, while conventional military confrontation has persisted. Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme has further increased tensions and the possibility of war has frequently been considered--Publisher.

As the locus of Great Power rivalry in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the battleground for the first 'hot' conflict of the early Cold War, and--in the case of the contemporary challenge of a nuclear North Korea--one of the most potentially destabilizing threats to regional security, the Korean peninsula is critical in understanding the history, politics, and international relations of Asia. Both Koreas find themselves confronting a rapidly changing and fluid international environment. This new collection from Routledge addresses thematically four broad sets of issues which are essential to understand the political and economic development of the two Koreas in the modern era.

In the 20th century, South Korea was usually seen as a "shrimp amongst whales", a minor player with limited agency in regional and global affairs. Korea’s risen status as a "middle power" today, however, begs the question about related changes in the South Korean identity or "sense of self" in the world. In this book, Patrick Flamm presents the first comprehensive and agency oriented empirical account of South Korean international state identity and Seoul’s global foreign policy in the 21st century. Advancing a performative and narrative understanding of identity in International Relations, Flamm uses South Korea’s global engagement in peacekeeping and climate diplomacy to offer much-needed insight into the various identity narratives and role conceptions at play. In the case of peacekeeping and climate diplomacy, South Korea’s identity as an international actor has been dominated by practices of self-identification that position the country at the brink of advanced countries, aspiring to lead the rest of the world but with the overall objective to maintain national autonomy in a changing regional and global context. South Korean Identity and Global Foreign Policy is a must-read for scholars of International Relations, Foreign Policy Analysis and Asian/Korean Studies.

This title was first published in 2001: Byung-ok Kil's thorough analysis deals with both the broad area of public policy and the specific topic of national security policy change in Korea. Using an historical comparative approach, he tests the relative importance of international and domestic developments as determinants of security policy change. Drawing extensively on carefully selected sources of quantitative and qualitative data including original documents and interviews, this engaging text is of theoretical, methodological and applied policy relevance to the academic community and of substantive interest to a broader audience of governmental officials in national security and related policy areas.

In 1991 South Korea, along with North Korea, was made an official member of the UN. Using international relations theory, this book begins by looking at the struggle and eventual impact of the membership on the two countries post division in 1948. It investigates the predicted outcomes prior to joining, and whether these outcomes have come to fruition nationally and on a global scale. Following this, there is focus on South Korea's ability to exert an influence on international decision making in world-politics, and how this affected inter-Korean relations. Importantly, analysis looks at how participation in the Security Council (1996–1997 and 2013–2014) further extended the country's capabilities to adopt resolutions, including those affecting North Korea's missile and nuclear programmes and human rights record. South Korea's participation in peacekeeping operations, Koreans appointed to high positions within the UN system and payments of the UN budget are also investigated. The study concludes with discussion of the role of the UN as a forum for international contacts and for providing knowledge otherwise unavailable to non-members. South Korea in the United Nations is unique in its analysis of South Korea's relations with the UN prior to and, above all, after 1991, thereby enhancing understanding of the significance of its UN membership as well as the importance of being a UN member. Suitable for scholars in Korean studies, international relations and East Asian politics, it can also be used as a reference work by policy-makers in the region, and for students and professionals working within the UN system.

This thought-provoking volume provides a valuable overarching framework towards a more informed understanding of how South Korea's relationship with the outside world has evolved in the twentieth century and the manner in which it is likely to do business in the twenty-first.

This book assesses the strategic linkages that the Korean Peninsula shares with the Indo-Pacific and provides a succinct picture of issues which will shape the trajectory of the Korean Peninsula in the future. This book analyses how critical actors such as the United States, China, Russia and Japan are caught in a tightly balanced power struggle affecting the Korean Peninsula. It shows how these countries are exerting control over the Korean Peninsula while also holding on to their status as critical actors in the broader Indo-Pacific. The prospects of peace, stability and unity in the Korean Peninsula and the impact of this on Indo-Pacific power politics are explored as well as the contending and competing interests in the region. Chapters present country-specific positions and approaches as case studies and review the impact of power politics on stakeholders’ relationships in the Indo-Pacific. The book also argues that the Korean Peninsula and the issue of denuclearization is of primary importance to any direction an Indo-Pacific Partnership may take. Bringing together scholars, journalists and ex-diplomats, this book will be of interest to academics working in the field of international relations, foreign policy, security studies and Asian studies as well as audiences interested

South Korea has emerged as a new middle power playing a significant role in a wide range of important global issue areas and supporting liberal international order with its leadership diplomacy. The growing role played by new powers like Korea calls into question the prevailing view that global governance is polarized with emerging powers challenging the liberal international order established by the United States and its European allies after World War II. As the case of Korea shows, large developing countries like the BRICS are not the only emerging powers active in global governance. Newly developed or high income developing countries like South Korea, Turkey and Mexico are also active emerging powers, taking new initiatives, setting agendas and mediating conflicts between rival groups on the global stage. Because these high income developing countries have advanced under and benefited from the liberal international order, they see a great stake in its stability and show a willingness to protect it. "Liberal internationalist" developing countries are joining the expanding list of middle powers who contribute to the maintenance of liberal international order as niche players and system supporters.