Middle-Power Korea

Overview

South Korea can best influence the global agenda by committing sufficient resources to sustainable development, financial stability, nuclear governance, and green growth, argues Scott A. Snyder, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) senior fellow for Korea studies, in the introduction to a new report, Middle-Power Korea: Contributions to the Global Agenda.

Scott A. Snyder

Senior Fellow for Korea Studies and Director of the Program on U.S.-Korea Policy

Colin I. Bradford

Toby Dalton

Codirector, Nuclear Policy Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Brendan Howe

Lecturer, Ewha Women’s University Graduate School of International Studies

Jill Kosch O’Donnell

Independent Researcher

Andrew O’Neil

Professor of Political Science and Head of School, School of Government and International Relations, Griffith University

South Korea has raised its international profile by organizing major conferences, a strategy that Snyder terms “hosting diplomacy.” Between 2010 and 2012, it convened meetings of the Group of Twenty (G20), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and Green Climate Fund.

“By exploiting its international standing, capabilities, and aspirations as a middle power, South Korea has drawn a record number of leaders to Seoul for discussions on some of the toughest problems facing the world and has earned a seat at the table based on its thought leadership rather than its size,” Snyder writes.

However, he cautions, “for a country with limited resources and power such as the ROK [Republic of Korea] to continue to make a difference on the international stage, it needs to effectively deploy its vision and experience, its institutional capacity to bridge gaps among nations, and its top-rank human resources.”

Snyder recommends that Seoul

• prioritize its contributions in line with South Korea’s expertise on particular issues;
• establish institutional strategies to further its contributions to these issues; and
• determine which aspects of its own economic, political, sustainable, and financial development experience might be transferable to developing countries today, and provide them with training in these areas.

Snyder’s conclusions are based on five expert evaluations of South Korean diplomacy. The report features Colin I. Bradford of the Brookings Institution on financial policy, Brendan Howe of Ewha Women’s University on international development, Toby Dalton of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on nuclear energy, independent researcher Jill Kosch O’Donnell on green growth, and Andrew O’Neil of Griffith University on the durability of South Korea’s diplomatic ambitions.

With Pacific Forum CSIS Executive Director Brad Glosserman, Snyder is also coauthor of the new book The Japan-South Korea Identity Clash: East Asian Security and the United States. In the book, Snyder and Glosserman explore how divergent national identities have fractured relations between Japan and South Korea.

Chapter Downloads

• Introduction [567K PDF]

• South Korea As a Middle Power in Global Governance: "Punching Above Its Weight” Based on National Assets and Dynamic Trajectory [584K PDF]

• Development Effectiveness: Charting South Korea’s Role and Contributions [682K PDF]

• Nuclear Governance: South Korea’s Efforts to Strengthen Regimes and Frameworks for the Safe and Secure Use of Nuclear Energy [602K PDF]

• South Korea's Role As Host of the Green Climate Fund: Implications for ROK Contributions to Green Growth [588K PDF]

• South Korea As a Middle Power: Global Ambitions and Looming Challenges [586K PDF)