April 12, 2006

Transforming an Asymmetric Cold War Alliance: Psychological and Strategic Challenges for South Korea and the U.S.

Wonhyuk Lim, then visiting fellow at both the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies (CNAPS) and the Brookings Institution, takes a structural view of the current malaise pervading the U.S.–ROK alliance. The United States and South Korea, he believes, developed an asymmetrical relationship during the Cold War that served their mutual security needs. Now that the global geopolitical dynamic has changed, the partners must change their approach to one another if the alliance is to continue.

In the aftermath of the Korean War, the U.S. and ROK entered into a standard superpower-client relationship, said Lim. As long both parties faced a common enemy, and the ROK was too weak to defend itself, the arrangement made sense. But today, South Korea has developed into a stable middle power, and doesn’t share a common threat perception with the U.S. vis-à-vis North Korea and China.

Some scholars have suggested that the two partners can find a renewed basis for their alliance in their shared values. Both are democratic, capitalist societies with similar ideals. But Lim doesn’t believe this will be enough. Values aren’t the issue that’s currently dividing the partners. Both want a nuclear-free North Korea, and eventually, a reunified, democratic Korea.

It’s when it comes to the means to achieve these ends that the U.S. and ROK don’t see eye to eye. South Korea favors dialog and engagement in bringing about its goals. The U.S. prefers confrontation.

Lim believes that the way to bridge this gap, and renew the alliance, is for South Korea to assert itself as a confidant middle power and for the U.S., in turn, to treat it as such.