South Korea’s Response to Shifting Geopolitical Balances

The Korean Peninsula sits at the crossroads of continental and maritime Asia, seen at various times as a bridgehead onto the continent or a dagger pointing at the heart of Japan. Korea’s history has been shaped by its location and by competition between larger powers around it, driving numerous policy responses from both unified and divided Korea, ranging from isolationism to balancing big powers to more independent regional engagement. Under the current Yoon administration, South Korea appears to be once again undergoing a shift in strategic policy, healing long-standing rifts with Japan, strengthening defense cooperation with the United States, and pursuing a more activist regional policy. In this episode of the Applied Geopolitics Podcast, Rodger Baker, the director of the Stratfor Center for Applied Geopolitics at RANE, speaks with Dr. Jaehan Park, from the Edwin O Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. 

Dr. Jaehan Park has taught at SAIS and the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, and served in the Republic of Korea Army as an officer. Currently, he is working on a book project tentatively entitled, The Geographical Pivot of Grand Strategy, which examines how rising powers determine their geopolitical orientation.

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