"Soft power" as an instrument for external political influence of the South Korea

An alternative approach to exercising political influence through "soft power" by South Korea is viewed. Instruments used by Korean diplomacy in its pursuit of its goals are described

Socialist Fraternalism or Socialist Realism?:State Survival Versus Ideological Goals as Motivating Factors Behind North Korean Diplomacy Toward Other Socialist States

Even when dealing with fellow socialist powers, North Korean diplomacy has never fit neatly into typical socialist bloc categories. The ideological and material underpinnings of this have taken on a complex and distinctly North Korean character. This study offers a theoretical deconstruction of the intersecting structural and normative influences on North Korean diplomacy in developing a typology of "socialist realism," situated within a realist-constructivist International Relations (IR) theory framework. This study relies on primary source material from various diplomatic archives, alongside theoretical works from leading North Korean figures and press coverage from within the DPRK. It does so to both contextualize the subject within the wider historical, ideological, and theoretical context and to draw upon an oft-neglected North Korean perspective in analyzing influences on North Korean diplomacy across various levels. North Korean diplomacy towards socialist states is found to be more adaptive than might be expected, shaped not by one definitive influence but instead positioned at the confluence of distinctive ideological goals and more conventional realist objectives of state survival. The realist-constructivist framework explored within this paper serves as both a defining constraint on North Korean foreign policy and a conceptual tool for scholars analyzing North Korean diplomacy in both a historical and contemporary context, offering a broad utility to scholars and students alike across fields of history, International Relations, and political science. This paper offers an original interpretation of influences on North Korean diplomacy by developing a new realist-constructivist perspective rooted in theoretical, historical, and ideological analysis. It is positioned at the intersection between history and IR theory whilst critically interpreting North Korean ideological, media, and institutional sources alike in seeking to understand the broad cultural and structural influences on North Korean diplomacy in greater depth

ANALISIS GASTRODIPLOMASI MELALUI SAMYANG CHALLENGE TERHADAP DIPLOMASI KOREA SELATAN DI INDONESIA TAHUN 2015-2017

The development of diplomatic relations between countries raises a new concept, namely gastrodiplomacy. This change was also adopted by the South Korean government, who used gastrodiplomation as one of the elements of Korean Wave through the Samyang Challenge trend. This study aims to see how the influence of the Samyang Challenge on the diplomacy process carried out by South Korea in Indonesia 2015 to 2017. Using the qualitative method and data reduction analysis, this study shows that this trend is sufficient to have a significant influence on South Korean diplomacy processes in Indonesia, although there are still further challenges, especially regarding product halal issues

Robert T. Oliver: Trailblazer in Intercultural Communication

Robert T. Oliver was a scholar extraordinaire and a towering figure in rhetoric and public address, but his contributions to the field of intercultural communication are less well known. For over sixty years, Dr. Oliver wrote prolifically about the impact of culture on rhetoric and communication. Although Dr. Oliver rarely used the words intercultural communication in his writings, which were voluminous, he contributed greatly to the development of the field. This essay focuses on Dr. Oliver’s four major contributions to intercultural communication: (1) Critiquing the Eurocentric bias of rhetoric/communication, (2) offering an Asiacentric alternative to the study of rhetoric/communication, (3) utilizing and intracultural perspective to frame rhetoric/communication research, and (4) envisioning international diplomacy as a site for examining rhetoric/communication

Korea, China, and Western Barbarians: Diplomacy in Early Nineteenth-Century Korea

The story of the ‘opening’ of Korea presents us with a peculiar problem of its own. For, when Westerners arrived on the shores of Korea in the nineteenth century, they found a country that was shielded in the shadow of China. Korea, so it seemed to Westerners, would not open the country without Chinese approval, but China would not interfere in Korea on Western countries' behalf or, at times, even on her own behalf. And both Korea and China professed that they were acting according to the dictates of the traditional relationship which had bound the two countries for many centuries in peace and harmony. To Western observers this traditional Sino-Korean relationship seemed to offer nothing but a diplomatic cul-de-sac. Under the circumstances, it is not surprising that Western diplomats concluded that this relationship was merely ceremonial and largely dismissed it as having little political consequence.published_or_final_versio

Diplomatic style as foreign policy insight : a case study of South Korea

Diplomatic style is problematic. In academic research it is dismissed, misconstrued, treated perfunctorily, or wholly absented. Despite substantial expansion in the field of diplomatic studies, it has attracted scant attention. Yet, practitioners maintain a faith-like confidence in it. They allude to its importance in memoirs and instructional texts, and assume it gives them an advantage over scholars in analyzing foreign policy. For scholars and analysts, this raises the question, does diplomatic style really provide additional insight into foreign policy? This study assesses whether the ability to recognize and comprehend diplomatic style provides additional analytical insight above and beyond that which is available through academic research. I first explore the concept of diplomatic style and present a framework for its analysis. I construct four Weberian ideal types of diplomatic style - purposive-rational, value-rational, traditional, and emotional, which provide a means to contrast and compare concrete examples. Using South Korea as a case study, I elicit experiential narratives of diplomatic style from practicing and retired South Korean diplomats, and practicing and retired members of the Seoul foreign diplomatic corps. I then analyze, contrast, and compare these narratives with the Weberian ideal types. I find a tendency towards emotionalism, and concerns regarding status, generational change, cosmopolitanism, and estrangement, to be characteristics of the South Korean diplomatic style. While these phenomena are featured in academic research, I argue that focusing on diplomatic style highlights their relevance to foreign policy. In particular, the relevance of estrangement is difficult to ascertain from academic research alone. Therefore I also argue that the ability to recognize and comprehend diplomatic style does not provide additional analytical insight into a state's foreign policy, above and beyond that which is normally available through scholarly research, but rather narrows the vast range of information analysts must cover, and thus is an important guide to the factors which are 'policy relevant'. Hence the study makes three core contributions. First, it contributes to the field of diplomatic studies by presenting a comprehensive framework for the conceptualization of style in diplomatic practice. Second, it contributes to the field of Korean studies by highlighting influences on South Korean foreign policy, which were previously disparate and difficult to isolate. And finally, it presents a tangible policy solution to address the scholar-practitioner gap through a focus on diplomatic style

REPUBLIC OF KOREA FOREIGN POLICIES AND UNITED STATES REACTIONS: THE CASES OF THE TWO NORDPOLITIKS

This thesis studies the influence of the United States on the Republic of Korea’s Nordpolitik and Neo-Nordpolitik policies, and the interaction between the ROK and the United States in the process of executing the two policies. The Neo-Nordpolitik policy is a foreign and unification policy currently being pursued by the Moon Jae-in government in South Korea, subsequent to the Nordpolitik policy of the Roh Tae-woo administration in the early 1990s. This thesis focuses in-depth on the practical role the United States played in the process of promoting and implementing the two policies. The research for this thesis finds that the United States treated the ROK largely with consistency and consideration over the period spanning these two policies but behaved quite differently toward the two policies themselves. The United States, directly and indirectly, took a supportive position regarding the Nordpolitik policy. On the contrary, the United States, in an indirect manner, has effectively taken a divergent position regarding the Neo-Nordpolitik policy. The thesis explains the different responses of the United States in terms of the two policies’ alignments with U.S. interests in the overall circumstances in the Northeast Asia region, which was strong in the first case but is weak in the current case.Outstanding ThesisSo-ryeong, Republic of Korea Air ForceApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

North Korea: Terrorism List Removal

The issue of North Korea's inclusion on the U.S. list of terrorism-supporting countries has been a major issue in U.S.-North Korean diplomacy since 2000, particularly in connection with negotiations over North Korea's nuclear program. North Korea demanded that the Clinton and Bush Administration remove North Korea from the terrorism support list. Secretary of State Clinton said on June 7, 2009, that the Obama Administration would consider reinstating North Korea on the list of state supporters of terrorism. However, she said that there would have to be "recent evidence of their support for international terrorism.