Abstract
This chapter explores how the complex dynamic mixture of identity conflicts, security cooperation, and economic interdependence is present under the Republic of Korea (ROK)-Japan relationship. It examines the ways in which identity conflicts led to negative spillovers or to a vicious cycle in security and economic affairs, and also explores how structural forces mitigate the vicious cycle from falling into a diplomatic crisis. My analysis finds that the complex dynamics of security-economic considerations have worked to mitigate the identity conflicts, forcing rivals to compromise with each other as well as to push back against one’s domestic constituency. Deteriorations have led to an apparent paradox of identity politics that invited countervailing forces toward amelioration of the bilateral tie.
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For the former, Brad Glossman and Scott Snyder, Japan-South Korea Identity Clash (Columbia 2015); Cheolhee Park, “National Identities and South Korea-Japan Relations,” in Gilber Rozman ed., National Identities and Bilateral Relations (Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center Press 2013). More broadly, Gi-Wook Shin and Daniel Sneider eds., History Textbooks and the Wars in Asia: Divided Memories (London: Routledge 2011). For the latter, see Victor Cha, Alignment Despite Antagonism (Stanford: Stanford University Press 1999).
- 2.
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Sohn, Y. (2019). Japan and South Korea: The Identity-Security-Economy Nexus in a Turbulent Relationship. In: Sohn, Y., Pempel, T.J. (eds) Japan and Asia’s Contested Order. Asia Today. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0256-5_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0256-5_13
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