ADRN

The KF Korea Workshop is hosted by the Korea Foundation and organized by the East Asia Institute to promote and share understanding of Korean social, political, and economic issues among international residents in Korea.

For the first lecture of the 2019 KF Korea Workshop, Prof. Leif-Eric Easley, associate professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University, discussed South Korea’s role as a middle power.

Prof. Easley explained that middle powers often “stand in concert” to preserve global public goods and to maintain a rules-based regional and international order. He also introduced different middle power identities such as “emerging” and “established” middle powers. In that regard, he presented the following puzzle: “Why is South Korea considered as a ‘rising’ middle power?”

In response to this puzzle, Prof. Easley contended that South Korea “is not sitting still in terms of its middle power diplomacy.” In other words, while South Korea may possess middle power capabilities, there are instances in which the nation deliberately chooses not to exercise middle power diplomacy. He elaborated on reasons why other middle powers may engage in such manner including (1) historical baggage, (2) budgetary constraints, (3) inadequate economic development and (4) globalization. Yet he argued that South Korea presents a unique case in which these arguments do not necessarily apply.

Prof. Easley delved further into the South Korean case study by discussing how the nation has flexibly eschewed or applied middle power diplomacy toward its regional neighbors throughout the former and current administrations. In doing so, he stated that South Korea engages in “mismatched diplomacy” at certain times by disregarding “middle power logic” despite potential political costs that may be involved. To conclude his lecture, Prof. Easley suggested that further regional cooperation is imperative for South Korea in order to avoid risks and “traps” that may come with such mismatched diplomacy.