SOUTH KOREA AT THE CROSSROADS: Autonomy and Alliance in an Era of Rival Powers

摘要

Every state has its own schools of foreign policy situated within that state's own political, historical, social, and cultural context. Naturally, the foreign policy of a nation originates from its geographical situation, historical experiences, and diverse political, social, and cultural background. For example, without understanding the geographical features and modern history of China over the last century, there would be many limitations in explaining Chinese foreign policy today since historical experiences, and even trauma, have strongly influenced its foreign policy towards the world. Similarly, without understanding the Korean Peninsula's geographical features and twentieth-century history, it would be difficult to understand the nature and essence of Korean foreign policy today. South Korea at the Crossroads examines Korea's foreign policy in the latter half of the twentieth century within the framework of the country's foreign policy school vis-a-vis the coming-of-age power struggle between the US and China. This book is both timely and significant as it closely examines the foreign policy of each South Korean president, and helps shape the framework of Korea's foreign policy school. This book creates a map of South Korea's foreign policy orientation in two categories: one international (outwardly oriented) or parochial (inwardly oriented); the other, alliance or autonomy centred. Many Korean Peninsula experts and international relations scholars have explained South Korea's foreign policy school according to the frameworks of alliance (internationalists) and autonomy (nationalists). In these works, Korean internationalists include presidents Syngman Rhee (Princeton PhD and English speaker) and Park Chung-hee to Lee Myung-bak (officer corps, government officials, and diplomats who were largely educated in the US and corporate employees and bankers), while Korean nationalists include Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun (both former student protesters, liberal intellectuals, and human rights lawyers who fought military authority). Thus, this book adds a new standard: international vs parochial. This book well explains the strategic choices of former presidents in different geographical and international contexts, and shows a deep understanding of the complexities of Korean history of the late twentieth century.