In South Korea, there’s an old leftist argument that the foreign policy of the country was long ago captured. It draws a straight line from the chinilpa - Koreans who collaborated with Japanese colonial rule - to the postwar conservative elites who aligned the country’s strategy with U.S. interests.
Timing is everything in diplomacy, and South Korea has found the worst possible timing to enter trade talks with the Trump administration. With the U.S. mid-tariff offensive and Trump’s desperate need for a public victory,
Japan’s ambitious “One Theater” proposal—to integrate U.S. allies across East Asia into a single unified operational command—is generating buzz in Tokyo and cautious interest in Washington. But in Seoul, the response is far more skeptical. And for good reason.
Significance. The Constitutional Court's unanimous decision to remove President Yoon Suk-yeol from office on April 4, 2025, has elicited widespread public reactions, ranging from jubilant celebrations to vehement protests.
Maybe it’s my 1990s Australian teenage years of wagging* school and watching corny American television repeats, but I often listen in on conversations between academic, political, and/or government colleagues and get bored, so I return to form and act as a tabloid talk show host. I become a foreign policy Jerry Springer, throwing out difficult topics, inciting anger, and provoking responses.
Middle powers do not have the capacity to shape changes in the strategic environment; rather, they react to them. What distinguishes them from smaller powers is their capacity to plan how to react in anticipation of change. If they’re lucky, reaction is planned in advance and they secure advantage.
Spending time in Seoul’s epistemic community—among journalists, academics, and policymakers—I’m often struck by how rarely Australia is seen as an independent actor in international affairs. When discussing regional security, trade policy, or strategic alliances, Australia is routinely framed as an extension of the United States - often an annoying and arrogant extension.
Significance: South Korea’s demographic crisis is the defining challenge of its economic, social and potentially security landscape.
Germany and Europe’s political divide as a lesson for Korea
The Ugly American (1958) by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick is a novel, which exposed the failings of U.S. foreign policy through a series of fictionalized stories about American diplomats and their interactions abroad. Though the novel was set in the context of Southeast Asia during the Cold War, its insights into the importance of humility, cultural understanding, and the dangers of arrogance remain relevant today.
