Park Geun-hye Administration’s Foreign Policy Agendas and Korea-Japan Relations

As the so-called ‘Asian Century’ unfolds, Central Asian countries are increasingly directing their foreign relations eastward. Meanwhile, Asian states are equally turning to Central Asia in their search for energy resources and new markets. This dual dynamic is giving rise to closer and deeper ties in three key areas. As far as infrastructures are concerned, various Asian powers have adopted Silk Road policies that see Central Asia as a fundamental transit route for their long-haul connectivity projects. In the field of trade, Central Asia's exchanges with other Asian countries have been growing steadily since the 1990s, in some cases even coming to rival, in comparative terms, exchanges with the West. Lastly, in terms of multilateralism, Central Asia is increasingly enmeshed in a web of overlapping institutions with a strong Asian identity, coexisting with the region's Western institutional references. The article then problematizes this emerging pattern by sketching out some of the possible ramifications that could stem from the sustainment and consolidation of these trends for the international order and the global balance of power.

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From Middle Power to Pivot Power: Korea as an Arctic Observer in the Age of Eurasia

Watson¹

2016

Pacific Focus

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Whilst identification of Korea's Arctic issue agenda and motives has been established, there is little examination as to determining why certain issues and partnerships are being developed at certain points in the context of regional geopolitical shifts. I argue that Korea's role in the Arctic represents a shift in Korea's middle power strategy from bridge nation to pivot nation. Korea's current Arctic strategy links to a wider transcontinental strategy. As a result, conventional middle power criteria are being challenged by a strategy based on network centrality rather than "middle" structural location or resource concentration. This shift represents not just "middle power" leverage but opens potentially different understandings and expectations over what counts as middle power leverage.

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Park Geun-hye Administration’s Foreign Policy Agendas and Korea-Japan Relations

Cited by 4 publications

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Northeast Asian Perspectives on China’s Belt Road Initiative: the View from South Korea

Northeast Asian Perspectives on China’s Belt Road Initiative: the View from South Korea

Central Asia in Asia: Charting growing trans-regional linkages

From Middle Power to Pivot Power: Korea as an Arctic Observer in the Age of Eurasia

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