Andrew Cooper predicts that traditional middle powers will continue to “accent away” from the traditional “soft” brand, and non-traditional middle powers will fill this gap. In doing so, South Korea has an opportunity to re-model the middle power identity. Cooper specifically looks at hallyu or “Korean Wave” as South Korea’s approach of soft power branding. He emphasizes that Korean government officials’ willingness to associate with and actively support such phenomenon is in fact opposed to more traditional forms of public diplomacy, characterized as risk-adverse and inward-looking.
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