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The Role of South Korea in the Making of a Regional Trade Architecture: Convening, Bridging, and Designing FTA Networks

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Transforming Global Governance with Middle Power Diplomacy

Abstract

Recently, the concept of middle power diplomacy has drawn considerable attention in South Korea. Numerous works have been published and conferences held over the role of South Korea as a middle power in the changing international environment. This debate was provoked by a variety of theoretical and policy-related questions, largely related to the fundamental changes in the international system in general and the decline of US leadership in particular.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Middle power diplomacy is now regarded as a viable option for a country’s long-term strategic goals. Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) prepared a mid-and long-term strategic plan that adopts middle power diplomacy as one of the key strategic concepts guiding Korea’s foreign policy for the coming decade. This concept also appears in the policy briefing to the President Park Geun-hye by MOFA (March 27, 2013).

  2. 2.

    Anne-Marie Slaughter, A New World Order (Princeton: Princeton University Press).

  3. 3.

    Miles Kahler, Networked Politics: Agency, Power, and Governance (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009).

  4. 4.

    Emmily Marie Hefner-Burton et al. “Network Analysis for International Relations” International Organization 16(3) (July 2009).

  5. 5.

    Joanne Gowa and Edward Mansfield, “Power Politics and International Trade,”American Political Science Review 87(2) (1993).

  6. 6.

    David Shambaugh, “China Engages Asia: Reshaping the Regional Order,” International Security 29(3) (Winter 2004/5).

  7. 7.

    Hilary Clinton, “America’s Pacific Century,” Foreign Policy, November 10, 2011.

  8. 8.

    Mark Manyin et al., “Pivot to the Pacific?: Administration’s Rebalancing toward Asia,” CRS Report for Congress, March 28, 2012.

  9. 9.

    Hilary Clinton, “Remarks on United States Foreign Policy,” Remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations, September 8, 2010, accessed September 9, 2015. http://m.state.gov/md146917.htm.

  10. 10.

    Hilary Clinton, “Remarks on Regional Architecture in Asia,” Remarks at the East-West Center, Honolulu, January 12, 2010, accessed September 9, 2015. http://www.state.gov/secretary/20092013clinton/rm/2010/01/135090.htm.

  11. 11.

    Clinton, “America’s Pacific Century.”

  12. 12.

    Jiechi Yang, “Shape the Future of Asia Pacific with Confidence and Cooperation,” Address at the First Lanting Forum, December 1, 2010, accessed September 9, 2015. http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/topics_665678/lantingluntan_665724/t773516.shtml.

  13. 13.

    CEG Commentary, “Xi Jinping’s ‘China Dream,’ an Attempt at Chinese Soft-power?” March 28, 2013, accessed September 9, 2015. http://chinaelectionsblog.net/?p=21316.

  14. 14.

    “Xi Jinping: China to further friendly relations with neighboring countries” Xinhuanet, October 26, 2013, accessed September 9, 2015. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-10/26/c_125601680.htm.

  15. 15.

    Zachary Keck, “China’s Growing Hegemonic Bent,” The Diplomat, June 26, 2014.

  16. 16.

    John Ravenhill, “The ‘new East Asian regionalism’: A political domino effect,” Review of International Political Economy 17(2) (2010): 199–200.

  17. 17.

    Takashi Terada, “Forming an East Asian Community,” Japanese Studies 26 (2006).

  18. 18.

    Hirschman, Albert. National Power and the Structure of Foreign Trade (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1945).

  19. 19.

    Yul Sohn and Mingyo Koo. “Securitizing Trade: the Case of the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement,” International Relations of the Asia-Pacific 11(3) (2011): 433–460.

  20. 20.

    The US Trade Representative (USTR),“Remarks by USTR Portman and Korea Trade Minister Kim at the launch of US-Korea Free Trade Agreement Negotiations,” February 2, 2006, accessed September 9, 2015. https://ustr.gov/archive/assets/Document_Library/Transcripts/2006/February/asset_upload_file804_8935.pdf: 14.

  21. 21.

    Richard Armitage and Joseph Nye, The US-Japan Alliance: Getting Asia Right Through 2020 CSIS, 2007: 17–18.

  22. 22.

    Aurelia George Mulgan, Japan’s Agricultural Policy Regime (London: Routledge 2006).

  23. 23.

    Ronald Wonnacott, “Free Trade Agreements: For Better or Worse?” The American Economic Review 86(2) (1996).

  24. 24.

    Taeho Bark, “KORUS FTA, Korea’s Trade Policy and Dynamics of East Asian Regional Integration.” Presented at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, May 16, 2012.

  25. 25.

    Richard Baldwin, “21st Century Regionalism: Filling the Gap Between 21st Century Trade and 20th Century Trade Rules,” CEPR Policy Insight No. 56, April 2011, accessed September 9, 2015. https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/reser_e/ersd201108_e.pdf.

  26. 26.

    The United States Trade Representative, “The President’s 2010 Trade Policy Agenda,” 2010, accessed, September 9, 2015. https://ustr.gov/2010-trade-policy-agenda: 8.

  27. 27.

    Ann Capling and John Ravenhill, “Multilateralizing Regionalism: What Role for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement?” The Pacific Review 24(5) (2011); IanFergusson, William Cooper, Remy Jurenas, and Brock Williams, “The Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations and the Issues for Congress,” CRS Report for Congress, March 20, 2011.

  28. 28.

    Wen Jin Yuan. “The Trans-Pacific Partnership and China’s Corresponding Strategies,” A Freeman Briefing Report (CSIS, June 2012): 1.

  29. 29.

    Article on Japan’s move to join TPP negotiations. See “日本加入TPP谈判美“对华包围圈”前进一步,” Xinhua, March 17, 2013, accessed September 9, 2015. http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2013-03/17/c_124468170.htm.

  30. 30.

    Recited from Guoyou Song and Wen Jin Yuan, “China’s Free Trade Agreement Strategies,” Washington Quarterly 35(4) (2012): 108.

  31. 31.

    Bark, “KORUS FTA.”

  32. 32.

    Interview with an unidentifiable US official (December 2012).

  33. 33.

    By 2013 Chinese concerns over isolation have eased and some Chinese observers now see the TPP as a tool to help drive Chinese reforms. In practice, both the US and Chinese governments understand that the TPP will contain provisions that China would find difficult to accept and the reconciliation of the tracks, while desirable and likely, may take time.

  34. 34.

    Korea’s leverage would have been greatest when the KORUS and K-EU FTA were concluded, while TPP negotiations were still in its infancy.

  35. 35.

    Baldwin, “21st Century Regionalism.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Yul Sohn

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  1. Yul Sohn
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. East Asia Institute, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Korea (Republic of)

    Sook Jong Lee

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Sohn, Y. (2016). The Role of South Korea in the Making of a Regional Trade Architecture: Convening, Bridging, and Designing FTA Networks. In: Lee, S. (eds) Transforming Global Governance with Middle Power Diplomacy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59359-7_6

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