korean unification studies

Comments posted by Baltimoron on this site have forced me to read more about the role of middle powers in Korean affairs. Do they really have a role to play? Does South Korea’s position as a middle power change anything with respect to Korean unification, and peninsula affairs in general?

First of all, what are middle powers? There are two broad categories of the definition centred around capacity and behavior. The first considers a middle power to be ‘middle’ in terms of capacity. That is, ranked in the middle of all states in a series of measurements such as military, economy, resources (human, natural, technological, etc) and population. The second considers a middle power to be a state that displays a certain type of foreign policy behavior. That is, it demonstrates a foreign policy distinct from major and minor powers, what some label as ‘middle-powermanship’. Middle-powermanship includes a tendency to resolve international disputes through compromise, a preference for multilateralism and a tendency to display ‘good international citizenship’.

Some authors consider South Korea to be a middle power, some consider it yet to be a middle power, and some consider it to be an emerging middle power – a combination of the two – or a state with the capacity of a middle power, but yet to display the foreign policy behavior…

The most often cited examples of middle powers are Canada, Australia, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Sometimes the categories also include South Africa, Malaysia, Mexico, and the list goes on and on. What have these states done to help resolve the situation on the Korean peninsula? Well, not a hell of a lot… There is one theory which states that middle powers only have the capacity to act independently on issues that do not relate to directly to the security interests of a major power – which means the Korean peninsula is out of the question…. but another theory states that middle powers can influence major power security interests. Supporters of this theory state examples such as the Cambodia peace settlement, regional nuclear free zones and the landmine ban treaty (which certain major powers did sign and the US did not sign).

Anyways, I’ve linked to the best papers freely available online so that you can make your own decisions… there are several other very good papers available through academic databases, but I cannot link to them here. Interestingly, these ones online are the only ones that deal specifically with the concept of middle powers and the Korean peninsula:

Middle powers and Korean normalization

South Korea as a middle power: capacity, behavior, and now opportunity

Position vacant: middle power coordinator on the Korean peninsula

Solving the security puzzle in Northeast Asia: a multilateral security regime

So after reading these… do middle powers have a role to play in Korean peninsula affairs or should it be left to the major powers to sort out? Please let me know your views!