South Korea

This article was published on The Korea Times on August 16, 2023. For much of the past year there has been a focus on how the CHIPS and Science Act…

This article was published on The Diplomat on August 7, 2013. On the July 27 anniversary of the Korean Armistice Agreement, there were numerous tributes to the ultimate sacrifice so…

This article was published on The Korea Times on July 19, 2023. Dating back to last year’s presidential election, the Yoon Suk Yeol administration has sought to transform Korea’s foreign…

In his speech at a non-union auto workers' facility last week in lieu of a Republican debate performance, former President Donald Trump again made U.S.-Korea trade the focus of his protectionist rhetoric.  In outlining what he called his vision for the “revival of economic nationalism,” he boasted over what he believed was “saving American auto…

Two decades ago, South Korea was rarely called a middle power. Today, it invites ridicule to suggest South Korea is anything but a middle power. Given the concept’s ambiguity and lackluster academic credentials, why did the definition become so widely applied? The immediate answer is obvious. South Korea started to be labeled a middle power…

In celebrating seventy years of their security alliance, the United States and Korea exemplify the very best of what a robust economic partnership looks like. With terms like “friend-shoring” and “economic allies” increasingly making their way into beltway policy language, no reflection of the past seventy years of the U.S.-Korea alliance would be complete without…

There are a plethora of studies on South Korea as a middle power. Some argue Korea needs to change to fit the term, some reinvent the term to fit Korea, and still others just use the term without questioning. Very few ask why we bother at all. The modern term “middle power” is an historically…