Korea’s Role for Peacebuilding and Development in Asia

Abstract

South Korea (Korea) lacks the compulsory power of regional and global great powers, but still strives to play a major role in the fields of peacebuilding and development. It is a middle power which, due to geopolitical constraints, is unable to play the neutral or brokering role of traditional middle powers, and thus must turn to other areas of agenda setting and niche diplomacy. This article examines policy arenas for which Korea is particularly well suited to playing such a role, and in which Korea can have a major impact, significantly to the mutual advantage of Korea and its regional partners. In order to do so to the best of its ability, Korea needs to shift its policy emphasis from bilateral to multilateral endeavors.

Innovative Development Finance for Health Sector Development: Focusing on the Air Ticket Solidarity Levy System in the Republic of Korea

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“…Indeed, starting in the early 2000s, Korea aimed to join the list of the world's leading donor group, the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (Watson, 2014). To achieve this goal, the Korean government adopted international development norms and humanitarian approaches (Howe, 2017). Kim (2016) uncovered a new, dominant strategic stance in Korean foreign aid policy generated in the “ethical leadership discourse” (p. 72) that frames the promotion of Korea's international image as a responsible global leader, abiding by the development norms and principles of the global community.…”

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“…Notions of what it is to be a middle power are essentially contested, as indeed are conceptualizations of measurements of power and their aggregation. Thus, a middle power can be described as one that has somewhat middling access to resources, pursues strategies appropriate to middlepowerism, and/or has a modest ability to impact on the external operating environment (Howe 2017). Middle powers lack "compulsory power," the military resources to dominate others or the economic resources to bribe countries into adopting policies that they would not otherwise pursue.…”