What Naval Power Means to Seoul
John Mearsheimer’s theory of the “stopping power of water” isn’t much help on the Korean Peninsula, where armed ships and subs of North and South Korea have fought a string of bloody sea battles along their disputed border in the Yellow Sea. The two Koreas, in fact, have more experience in littoral combat, surface and subsurface, than many navies in the Asia Pacific. And yet, despite all the attention to maritime conflict in the region, surprisingly little has been written on South Korea as a seapower.
Ian Bowers of the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies fills the gap with this comprehensive and illuminating treatise. Anyone following the tensions in maritime East Asia will want to read his book for the light it sheds on the shifting capabilities and ambitions of a key player, South Korea. At the same time, his lens of naval power opens up broader insights into Korea’s political transformation and strategic evolution. During most of the Cold War, the country was run by generals who gave seapower short shrift, focusing narrowly on deterring amphibious operations by North Korea and otherwise drafting in the wake of the US Navy. But with the democratic transition to civilian rule, the South Korean Navy has steadily grown in resources and strategic vision, developing a “blue water” theory of South Korea’s future that looks in all cardinal directions, not just to the north.
Anyone following the tensions in maritime East Asia will want to read Bowers’ book.