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This book examines the first regional strategy of South Korea toward Southeast Asia and India. At issue is how a middle power (a G20 country with the tenth largest economy in the world) seeks to play a larger and more comprehensive role in regions beyond the Korean peninsula. Hitherto, South Korean foreign policy has focused on nuclearizing North Korea, alliance maintenance with the United States, tricky relations with its most important economic partner China, and difficult ties with Japan marred by historical and territorial disputes. The Moon Administration has sought to diversify South Korean foreign policy by elevating ASEAN and India to the same strategic level as the United States, China, Russia, and Japan. To be sure, the latter countries continue to be most significant to the Korean peninsula. However, this book offers different country and regional perspectives on Seoul’s first regional grand strategy to play a role commensurate with its status as a middle power.
Spanning seven decades, the diplomatic relations between India and Japan present a narrative of mutual respect, strategic alignment, and cooperation. This relationship has evolved from strong cultural and civilizational linkages to a global partnership and has led to significant developments in defence and security, economic modernization, infrastructure projects and regional cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. Based on a conference organized by the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) on May 19, 2022, this book discusses the nature of India–Japan relationship and presents a comprehensive account of the diplomatic ties between the two nations. Attended by renowned scholars and policymakers, the conference marked the 70th anniversary of India-Japan relations and provided a fertile ground for insightful reflections, which have been collated in this book. It serves as a testament to the resilient relationship and an inspiring guide for the path ahead. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)
This book looks at the regional policies of two ‘middle powers’ in the Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan and South Korea, and provides critical reflections on the ways both have sought to broaden their options for strategic manoeuvres with their southern neighbours. The chapters in this edited volume carefully examine the ‘New Southbound Policy’ (NSP-T), introduced by Taiwan (2016-present), and the ‘New Southern Policy’ (NSP-K), by South Korea (2017-2022). Both policies are aimed at important neighbours, namely Southeast Asia and India, who are major recipients of Taiwanese and South Korean capital, technology, cultural influence, and educational aid, and seek to improve diplomatic and foreign relations of these two countries with the region. Southward Bound: Examining the Regional Policies of Taiwan and South Korea will be of great value to students and scholars interested in Asian Studies, foreign policies of Asian countries, politics and international security. The chapters in this book were originally published in Asian Affairs.
The book offers a vivid analysis of the new geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific in terms of big power rivalry between the US-China and country-wise perspectives situating largely within the late 2000s and culminates with the developments of the COVID-19 period. The great power shift, marked by the rise of China and the relative decline of the US, poses a serious challenge to the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific region and the world order in general. Ironically, the play of realism in the region is stymied by broad partnerships of key countries that utilise the liberal approaches of cooperation with both rivals – the US and China. The book captures the mosaic of stakeholders – rivals the US and China along with Russia; other QUAD members Australia, India, and Japan; key ASEAN members, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam; vulnerable states in East Asia, viz. Taiwan and South Korea; and groupings including the ASEAN and QUAD – that constitute the new world politics of the Indo-Pacific. The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of Indo-Pacific studies, global politics, and international relations.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is completing a decade. There have been varied responses to the Initiative from countries and regions besides the emergence of alternative initiatives and narratives. This sets the stage for evaluating the robustness of the Initiative, its implementation as well as its implications from the perspective of individual countries and regions across the globe. This book begins by examining China’s domestic, economic, maritime and strategic interests as drivers for the Initiative. BRI has been analysed in country-specific, regional and continental contexts. It brings out the experiences and responses from South Asia, Eurasia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Arab world, Latin America, the Caribbean as well as from Europe and Africa. Further, BRI has been studied in the larger context of the US-China competition. The final section explores BRI in the context of the twin challenges of recent times, i.e., the pandemic and Russia-Ukraine conflict. The book concludes with an epilogue which outlines the broad trends related to BRI that have emerged from this study of ICWA.
This book explores multiple fields and disciplines around the theme of South Korea’s engagement and exchanges with global society focusing on development cooperation, migration and the media. The core of this volume is an analysis of South Korea’s engagement and reciprocity in global society that has developed out of the country’s shift from aid recipient and migrant sender to aid provider and migrant host. The contributions approach this through the three main aspects of overseas aid, cross-border contacts, and interplay of identities in the mediascape. These themes represent an interdisciplinary array of research that introduces and analyses interconnected and concurrent instances of reciprocity, convergence, tension, inclusion, or exclusion in navigating South Korea’s interactional relations with global society, spanning regions and countries including Africa, Asia, the USA, and Germany. This book will be valuable reading to students and researchers from a wide range of disciplines including sociology, gender studies, ethnic studies, media studies, IR, and area studies, in particular Korean studies.
With the US-China geostrategic competition heating up, it is an opportune time for South Korea, ASEAN and India to draw on their middle power status to bolster regional security and economic cooperation to protect their interests from any potential superpower fallout. This book investigates the diverse possibilities for collaboration within the India-ASEAN-ROK trilateral framework. It explores the various avenues of cooperation that this new trilateral initiative can benefit from, ranging from security, economic, institutional platforms and technology to sustainable development and climate change. The book provides regional perspectives on India, ASEAN and ROK to show the growing appetite in these countries for such trilateral initiatives and to forecast the challenges that may arise. Lucid and topical, this book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of political science, international relations, diplomacy and strategic studies, as well as Southeast Asian, East Asian and South Asian studies. It will also be of use to thinktanks and policymakers interested in Indo-Pacific, India-ASEAN and India-ROK issues.
This edited volume explores the past, present, and future of the Korean Peninsula, with special focus on South Korea, by connecting developments in politics with those in international relations and diplomacy. The book focuses on how South Korea’s politics and international relations have evolved since the founding of the First Republic in 1948, with particular attention to the period surrounding the 2022 presidential election. The authors provide new insights into Korean politics, including South Korean electoral reform and relations with China and Japan, North Korea’s nuclear capacity, and North–South diplomacy. Beginning with a commentary by Colin Crooks, Britain’s current Ambassador to South Korea and former Ambassador to North Korea, on recent British foreign policy changes and UK–Korea relations, this book will appeal to scholars and students of politics, international relations, diplomacy, and Korean Studies.
Combining global, media, and cultural studies, this book analyzes the success of Hallyu, or the "Korean Wave” in the West, both at a macro and micro level, as an alternative pop culture globalization. This research investigates the capitalist ecosystem (formed by producers, institutions and the state), the soft power of Hallyu, and the reception among young people, using France as a case study, and placing it within the broader framework of the 'consumption of difference.' Seen by French fans as a challenge to Western pop culture, Hallyu constitutes a material of choice for understanding the cosmopolitan apprenticeships linked to the consumption of cultural goods, and the use of these resources to build youth’s biographical trajectories. The book will be relevant to researchers, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students in sociology, cultural studies, global studies, consumption and youth studies.
An analysis of rights-based activism in South Korea, including case studies of women, workers, disabled persons, migrants, and sexual minorities.