Summary of Lecture by Dr. Chaesung Chun
Title: "South Korea's Foreign Policy and East Asian Security Architecture" (a GIARI"Economic Integration and Sustainability" Seminar)
Schedule: 16:00-17:30, January 24 (Mon.), 2011
Venue: Room 710, GSAPS building (#19), Waseda University
Presenter: Dr. Chaesung CHUN (Associate Professor, Department of International
Relations, Seoul National University)
Moderator: Dr. Jemma Kim (Assistant Professor, Waseda University)
Organizer: GIARI
Participants: 12 (including GIARI members: Dr. J. Kim [Moderator], Dr. H. Katsumata,Dr. M. Honda, Mr. T. Odaira [Logistics])
Contents:
I. Changing Regional Structure and Theoretical Analysis
Global Trends in International Relations
 2008 Economic crisis and the Decline of American hegemony and G2 discourse Economic crisis and new type of governance of G20: norm-based, multilateral,
institutional balancing
 The rise of network politics; G-x politics and bridging roles of middle powers
 Changing power fields: soft power, knowledge power, and network power Rise of China and rise of Asia; New results for Asian power transition
Major Trends in East Asia in 2011 The persistence of Balance of Power system, lack of multilateral regionalinstitutions.
 Power transition, coming mainly from the rise of China, and also strategic
reorientation of Japan and Russia
 Resilient American Hegemony, searching for Pax Americana III? Reengagement
policy of the US
 Still the identity politics, nationalist issues
 Coming post-modern issues; human security issues and the rise of “network globalgovernance”
Most Important Events in 2010
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 Worsening of US-China rivalry; Copenhagen Climate Conference, US arms sales
to Taiwan, Exchange Rate debate, Chonan/Yonpyeong Incident and followingROK-US military exercise, South China Sea issue, China-Japan maritime
territorial dispute, post-crisis economic management
 Forward-deployed US diplomacy and Chinese military buildup
 Transitional North Korea
 Japan’s new security strategy
Concepts for New East Asian International Politics
 The right concept for desirable East Asian regional order: community, regionalism,or network?
 Various ways to East Asian multilateral network: interest-based, power-based, oridentity-based
 Networks among Bilateralism, mini-regionalism, regionalism, and globalism
 Institutional/soft balancing
 Markets of institutional designs
 Cooperation in transnational issues, cultivation of culture of cooperation, andspill-over to modern issue areas
Theoretical Frameworks for East Asian International Relations
 Different levels of problems with multiple organizing principles:q1. modern-transitional; 2. modern; 3. post-modern transitional
 1)Nationalism, identity politics, memory politics
 2) Balance of power, power transition
 3)Proliferation of international institutions, transnational agendas and problems,
new types of global governance Question: How to transform the fundamental architecture of security relations
rather than to solve each issue?
Future South Korean Strategy
 To transform the current East Asian organizing principle from bop to cooperativecomplex networks
 Status as a global/regional middle power; regional transformer of organizing
principle for regional cooperation
 A member of global governance; G20
 Universal global norm
2/6 Agenda-setter, convener, cooperation facilitator, bridging roles in complex
networks
 Regional multilateralism/US-China relationship East Asia complex network beyond balance of power logic
Possible Scenarios for Future of the Region, in 2030? and South Korea
1. American hegemonic system, still
2. The new bipolar confrontation between the US and China
3. Multipolar competition among powers
4. Regional sino-hegemony
5. Bigemonic cooperation between the US and China
6. Regional, multilateral security cooperation, or NEAU(Northeast Asian Union)?
 For the worst case, South Korea should escape the scenario 2(the new bipolarconfrontation between the US and China)
 For the best case, South Korea wants to contribute to the process of security
paradigm transformation to the scenario 6(Regional, multilateral securitycooperation)…but HOW?
China-US Relations in 2010 and After Theoretically, bilateral security dilemma in the phase of power transition
 strategic mistrust still in the need of mutual cooperation
 misperception or incomplete information about the other party’s intention which
are expressed in offensive behaviors
 lack of trust and consensus about the process and the end-state of power transitionin the 21st century
New Factors in Future Hegemonic Rivalry Relevance of power transition theory to the case of Rise of Chin; Germany before
WWI and China now Determinants of hegemonic rivalry will be defined only partly by traditional power
elements such as military power and economic power.
 New elements such as soft power, network power, and international legitimacy will
be increasingly important in the future.
 The function of middle power initiatives: South Korea, Taiwan, ASEAN, and Japan(?)
 China’s difficulty
3/6 too strong checks and balances against rising Chinese hard power by existinghegemonic blocks
 only few rooms and leeway to search for a new leadership tacit encirclement of American networks implicating balancing strategy against
ChinaSome Suggestions for Future Hegemonic Rivalry Containing specific issues from hegemonic rivalry Issue-specific balancing between the US and China
 Institutionalization of dispute settlement; micro-management of power shift Solving security dilemma; more strategic dialogue between the US and China
 The role of middlepowers; reducing transaction costs and vision offering, and royal
opposition
 Just game for building post-American leadership and architecture East Asian democratic peace

II. Inter-Korean Relations in Changing East Asia
Current status of North Korea Issues
 No Six Party Talks for over more than two years
 North Korea’s power transition, inner instability, provocations against the South No inter-Korean dialogue for three years, South Korea’s conservative policy North Korea’s economic hardship, diplomatic isolation, and new peace offensives
from early this year, especially after US-China summit
Known Approaches to North Korean Nuclear Problem
 Globalist/non-proliferation approach; Dealing with “North Korean nuclearproblem”
 Vs.
 Regional/Political approach: Dealing with “North Korean problems” as a whole What should be our strategic purposes? Deterrence or dismantlement?
New Approaches to Dealing with Transitional North Korea
 Deterrence focused approach Regime transformation; versions of “malign neglect”
4/6 Principled engagement
Future Policies to deal with North Korea
 To have a long-term view for the future of North Korea.
 To sustain a coherent and principled policy of engagement toward North Korea.
 Concrete details for engagement should be devised with the consent of neighboring
countries.
 International co-engagement is crucial. Six Party Talks should be transformed intoa venue to guarantee North Korea’s survivability for the next leadership and to ask
for its fundamental change for reform and opening.
Notes: Northeast Asian nuclear problems
 The ramifications of the Six Party Talks for Northeast Asians
 Setting the model for future non-proliferation in other regions, and cultivating
multilateralist way of solving broader range of security problems in the region
1. Focusing only on dealing with rogue states’ proliferation: possibility of success,but “nuclear orientalism”?
2. More universalist way: regional, multilateral management of nuclear/WMD
weapons for the future; both vertical and horizontal counter-proliferation; modelfor dealing with other similar proliferation problems

III. Q & A Session

Q.1 (Dr. Katsumata): I thought your presentation was thoughtful andwell-structured. It might have been even more interesting if you had clarified yourown theoretical stance. I thought you took an eclectic stance, by employing theperspectives of realism, liberalism and constructivism. In addition, the fact that you
discussed the issue of North Korea separately suggests that power politics willremain relevant to Asian regional security. Although issues such as soft power,
networks and middle power initiatives may be relevant to East Asian diplomacy,
when it comes to the issue of North Korea, it is all about power politics, it seems.
A.1 (Dr. Chaesung): I agree with you in that the issue of North Korea will continue
to pose a serious challenge to Asian regional security.
Q.2 (Anonymous audience): Could you please elaborate more about your5/6

observation on recent US-China relations. I do not see rival relations between thetwo countries as observed in past relations between the US and USSR.
A.2 (Dr. Chaesung): It is dangerous to conclude that the US and China havefriendly relations only because they are economically interdependent. China canmobilize its economic power because they have a socialist market economy system.
However, it is also wrong to overemphasize the possibility of the crash between thetwo countries based on realist notions of the perceived threat between the two bigpowers. This is because their economic interdependence is significant.

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