South Korea’s Rise Is No Accident
South Korea’s emergence as a major global actor, whether as the 10th-largest economy, a leading exporter of cultural commodities, or as an increasingly influential global security partner, helps explain why it is a source of increased international attention. Ramon Pacheco Pardo sees this prominence as no accident. It reflects a deliberate approach — a “clear grand strategy” — that successive administrations have developed since the advent of the Sixth Republic in 1988 when South Korea transitioned from authoritarian to democratic governance.
Using a wealth of interviews with policymakers and thousands of primary and secondary sources, Pacheco Pardo paints a picture of a focused effort to bolster South Korea’s autonomy through a consistent set of means, including military, economic and soft power, a highly skilled diplomatic corps, and more recently cyber tools, to enhance its status as one of the world’s most successful “middle powers.” This strategy has been largely insulated from the vagaries of left-right partisan domestic politics; it is also geographically consistent, structured around four concentric circles, encompassing North Korea, the US and China; East Asia; Greater Eurasia and the Indian Ocean; and the rest of the world.
While Pacheco Pardo’s analysis is optimistic, assuming that the international environment will remain stable for the foreseeable future, it is interesting to consider how the country’s strategic thinkers will adapt to the growing divide between authoritarian and democratic regimes and the destabilizing spread of nationalist populist politics.