Just Another Regional Superpower? A Cautious South Korea Watches India’s Rise

The history of the Korean Peninsula is one of subjugation, of a country trampled on as its neighbours have pursued their own broader strategic goals. Today, still, South Korea (also known as the Republic of Korea—ROK) finds itself flanked by the central players of the ‘Asian century’: the United States, China and Japan. Recognising that traditional patterns of hard-power dominance are shifting around it, South Korea’s response has been to develop its foreign policy strategy in two directions. On the one hand, South Korea has been looking to strengthen and stabilise relations with key emerging regional players, such as China and, more recently, India. Its aim of strengthening the relationship with China can largely be explained in pragmatic terms: China is central to the ROK’s economic and strategic future. As well as South Korea’s economic dependency on the Chinese economy, China would also play a significant role in any future Korean reunification scenario (Snyder, 2014, pp.308–9). Yet, with this awareness in mind, South Korea exhibits a great deal of caution, which stems from a troubled historical relationship with its powerful neighbour. There is real concern in Seoul that the country may one day find itself in an unenviable position of having to weigh the value of its relationship with China against its strategic alliance with the United States.