Gi-Wook Shin is the director of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and the William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea in the Sociology Department and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He is the author/editor of 25 books, including South Korea's Democracy in Crisis and Ethnic Nationalism in Korea. Explore more of his analysis of the future of Korean democracy.
If the international order undergoes a fundamental realignment as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there will be significant ramifications for South Korea. To successfully chart a safe course for South Korea in its foreign relations, the Yoon Suk-Yeol government must be highly attuned to the twists and turns of today’s geopolitical undercurrents. A new international order defined by an ideological struggle between democracy and authoritarianism will leave no room for strategic ambiguity, Seoul’s hitherto strategy for balancing its relationships with the U.S. and China. Continue reading >>
This essay seeks not only to evaluate the decline of South Korea’s democracy over the past 10 years from a comparative perspective but also to provide an outside view of the historic tasks facing the Yoon administration as it prepares to set sail. Continue reading >>