Anti-American and Anti-Alliance Sentiments in South Korea
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The strain between the United States and the Republic of Korea is often seen as a result of South Korea's anti-Americanism. However, alliance strain and anti-Americanism have not necessarily changed together. This conceptual disparity calls for the need to specify, rather than assume, causality. The authors utilize newly collected data from two major Korean dailies to show this need.
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Asian Survey
“New Beginnings” in the U.S.-ROK Alliance: Recommendations to the Obama Administration (October 2011)
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Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) and The Korea Society established the New Beginnings policy study group three years ago to enhance the United States’ important alliance with the Republic of Korea. Differences of approach toward North Korea had created significant tensions between the two governments in preceding years.
The New Beginnings group, comprised of former senior U.S. policy makers and experts on U.S.-Korean relations, believed that the inauguration of a new government in South Korea in early 2008 and the election of a new U.S. president later that year could lay the basis for a fresh start in the bilateral relationship. Both individually and collectively, members engaged intensively with American and South Korean policy makers, and together they have issued annual reports and recommendations to the U.S. administration regarding bilateral developments and ways to strengthen the alliance.
Members of the group believe that U.S.-South Korean official and people-to-people relations today are broader, deeper, and stronger than ever due to the leadership of the two governments. They welcome the prospect that the U.S. Congress may approve the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement on the eve of President Lee Myung-bak’s upcoming state visit to the United States. Implementation of the agreement will significantly expand economic ties between the two countries, increase jobs, and reinforce strategic ties.
New Beginnings members remain concerned that North Korea may engage in further military and nuclear provocations, and they support continued close U.S.-South Korean coordination on diplomatic and military means to deter North Korea and to limit and eventually end its nuclear programs. Members also support continued implementation of existing plans to rationalize and realign United States Forces Korea (USFK), allow USFK personnel to be accompanied to Korea by their family members, and transfer wartime operational control over South Korean forces to South Korean authorities in 2015. With presidential elections scheduled in both the United States and South Korea in late 2012, members believe that the United States should focus on implementing existing policies rather than undertake major new initiatives regarding the alliance or North Korea policy.
Key recommendations of the 2011 annual report:
The members of the New Beginnings policy study group on U.S.-Korean relations offer the following major recommendations to the Obama administration:
• Increase cooperation with South Korea to correct weaknesses in deterrence; engage in further joint planning on responses to North Korean provocations
• Support the strengthening of South Korea’s response to North Korean missile programs, consistent with the credibility of the Missile Technology Control Regime
• Use the Extended Deterrence Policy Committee to underline to the South Korean government the effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear umbrella
• Continue implementation of existing plans to realign USFK, allow accompanied tours, and transfer wartime operational control over South Korean forces to South Korean authority as scheduled in 2015
• Continue efforts, in close coordination with South Korea, to engage North Korea diplomatically to limit, reduce, and end North Korea’s nuclear programs
• Provide any U.S. food aid to North Korea on a humanitarian basis, depending on needs there, competing needs elsewhere, and acceptable monitoring arrangements
• Seek to resume the search in North Korea for the remains of Americans missing-in action from the Korean War
• Encourage early South Korean legislative approval of the Free Trade Agreement.
The full-text of the 2011 report and all previous recommendations are available for download on the Shorenstein APARC website.
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Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Joon-woo Park
Shorenstein APARC
Encina Hall C324
616 Serra Street
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6055
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jwpark78@stanford.edu
2011-2012 Koret Fellow
Joon-woo Park, a former senior diplomat from Korea, is the 2011–12 Koret Fellow with the Korean Studies Program (KSP).
Park brings over 30 years of foreign policy experience to Stanford, including a deep understanding of the U.S.-Korea relationship, bilateral relations, and major Northeast Asian regional issues. In view of Korea’s increasingly important presence as a global economic and political leader, Park will explore foreign policy strategies for furthering this presence. In addition, he will consider possibilities for increased U.S.-Korea collaboration in their relations with China, as well as prospects for East Asian regional integration based on the European Union (EU) model. He will also teach a course during the winter quarter, entitled Korea's Foreign Policy in Transition.
In 2010, while serving as ambassador to the EU, Park signed the EU-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in Brussels. That same year he also completed the Framework Agreement, strengthening EU-South Korea collaboration on significant global issues, such as human rights, the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, and climate change. Park’s experience with such major bilateral agreements comes as the proposed Korea-U.S. FTA is nearing ratification.
Park holds a BA and an MA in law from Seoul National University.
The Koret Fellowship was established in 2008 through the generosity of the Koret Foundation to promote intellectual diversity and breadth in KSP, bringing leading professionals in Asia and the United States to Stanford to study U.S.-Korea relations. The fellows conduct their own research on the bilateral relationship, with an emphasis on contemporary relations, with the broad aim of fostering greater understanding and closer ties between the two countries.
Territorial Disputes in East Asia and the Role of the United States
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KSP's 2011–12 Koret Fellow, recently retired Korean senior career diplomat Ambassador Joon-woo Park, will discuss the U.S. role in current territorial disputes in East Asia. The disputes, which threaten peace and stability in the region and could result in conflict among major powers, have their origin in the incomplete settlement of the Pacific War overseen by the United States. Ambassador Park argues that the United States thus shares responsibility for the current situation. He will review the status of the major territorial disputes in East Asia and explain why the United States has a significant role to play in their peaceful resolution and in promoting cooperative and friendly relations among the countries of the region.
As a career diplomat, Ambassador Park served in numerous key posts, including those of ambassador to the EU and to Singapore and presidential advisor on foreign affairs. Park worked closely for over twenty years with Ban Ki-moon, the former Korean diplomat who is now the United Nations secretary-general.
Ambassador Park also served for seven years at the Korean embassies in Tokyo and Beijing. During his tenure as director general of the Korean foreign ministry’s Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau, he handled sensitive, longstanding issues relating to regional history, such as the depiction of historical events in Japanese textbooks and the treatment of the history of the Goguryeo kingdom in China’s Northeast Project.
The Koret Fellowship has been made possible by the generous support of the Koret Foundation. The Fellowship’s purpose is to promote intellectual diversity and breadth in KSP by bringing leading professionals in Asia and the United States to Stanford to study U.S.-Korea relations. Fellows conduct their own research on the bilateral relationship, with an emphasis on contemporary relations, with the broad aim of fostering greater understanding and closer ties between the two countries.
Philippines Conference Room
Joon-woo Park
2011-2012 Koret Fellow, former ambassador to the EU
Speaker
Seminars
Eunyoung Ha
Walter H. Shorenstein
Asia-Pacific Research Center
616 Serra St C332
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6055
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hheyoung@stanford.edu
Korean Studies Program Visiting Scholar
Eunyoung Ha is an assistant professor in the department of politics and policy in Claremont Graduate University’s School of Politics and Economics.
Ha's research areas include comparative politics, political economy, and political institutions. Her work has dealt primarily with the impact of globalization and domestic political institutions on domestic political economy, particularly as manifested in inequality, poverty, growth, unemployment, inflation, welfare spending, and taxation.
Ha received a PhD in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2007. In her dissertation, Distributive Politics in the Era of Globalization, she explains how globalization and government ideology have shaped income distribution in terms of welfare, inequality, and poverty. She currently works on government policy responses to financial crises and their political and economic effects.
Government Responses to Financial Crises: Identifying Patterns and Policy Origins
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Ha will examine how economic and political responses alter according to the types of financial crises -- currency crisis, banking crisis, and sovereign debt crisis -- encountered and how domestic political institutions influence government responses to these crises. She argues that fiscal and monetary policies tend to be more severely tightened under a currency crisis than under other crises, and the intensity of political atmosphere such as elections and electoral competitions pressures the governments to moderate the fiscal policies and even to adopt expansionary policies.
Ha is an assistant professor in the department of politics and policy in the School of Politics and Economics at Claremont Graduate University. Her research areas include comparative politics, political economy, and political institutions. Her work has dealt primarily with the impact of globalization and domestic political institutions on domestic political economy, particularly as manifested in inequality, poverty, growth, unemployment, inflation, welfare spending, and taxation.
Ha received a PhD in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2007. In her dissertation, Distributive Politics in the Era of Globalization, she explains how globalization and government ideology have shaped income distribution in terms of welfare, inequality, and poverty. She currently works on government policy responses to financial crises and their political and economic effects.
Space is limited and RSVPs will be accepted on a first come, first served basis.
Daniel and Nancy Okimoto Conference Room
Eunyoung Ha
Visiting Scholar, Shorenstein APARC, Stanford University; Assistant Professor, School of Politics and Economics, Claremont Graduate University
Speaker
Seminars
Joon-woo Park, 2011-2012 Koret Fellow, to explore South Korean foreign policy
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In September, Joon-woo Park, a former senior diplomat from Korea, will join the Korean Studies Program (KSP) at Stanford University’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) as the program’s 2011–2012 Koret Fellow.
Park brings over thirty years of foreign policy experience to Stanford, including a deep understanding of the U.S.-Korea relationship, bilateral relations, and major Northeast Asian regional issues. In view of Korea’s increasingly important presence as a global economic and political leader, Park will explore foreign policy strategies for furthering this presence. In addition, he will consider possibilities for increased U.S.-Korea collaboration in their China relations and prospects for East Asian regional integration based on the European Union (EU) model. He will also teach a Center for East Asian Studies course during the winter quarter, entitled Korea's Foreign Policy in Transition.
Park first served overseas in the mid 1980s at the Korean embassy in Washington, DC, during which time he studied at the prestigious Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at the Johns Hopkins University. He played a critical role in strengthening Korea’s foreign relations over the years, serving in numerous key posts, including that of ambassador to the EU and Singapore, director-general of the Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT), and presidential advisor on foreign affairs. Park worked closely for over twenty years with Ban Ki-moon, the former South Korean diplomat who is now the secretary-general of the United Nations.
In 2010, while serving as ambassador to the EU, Park signed the EU-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in Brussels. That same year he also completed the Framework Agreement, strengthening EU-South Korea collaboration on significant global issues, such as human rights, the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, and climate change. Park’s experience with such major bilateral agreements comes as the proposed Korea-U.S. FTA is nearing ratification.
Park worked for seven years at the Korean embassies in Tokyo and Beijing, gaining significant in-the-field expertise with Northeast Asian regional issues. During his tenure as director-general of MOFAT’s Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau, he handled sensitive, longstanding issues relating to regional history, such as the depiction of historical events in Japanese textbooks and the treatment of the history of the Goguryeo kingdom in China’s Northeast Project. Such issues of history and memory are among Shorenstein APARC’s current key areas of research.
In addition to his studies at SAIS, Park holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in law, both from Seoul National University. He also served as a Visiting Fellow at Keio University in 1990.
“With South Korea playing an ever larger role not only in East Asia but also globally, we could not be more pleased to have Ambassador Park join us,” says KSP director Gi-Wook Shin. “He is one of his country’s most experienced and capable diplomats, and his presence at Shorenstein APARC will allow us to put a sharper forcus on Korea’s role in world affairs.”
The Koret Fellowship was established in 2008 through the generosity of the Koret Foundation to promote intellectual diversity and breadth in KSP, bringing leading professionals in Asia and the United States to Stanford to study U.S.-Korea relations. The fellows conduct their own research on the bilateral relationship, with an emphasis on contemporary relations, with the broad aim of fostering greater understanding and closer ties between the two countries.
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Joon-woo Park, 2011-2012 Koret Fellow
Courtesy Joon-woo Park
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Sejong National Strategy Breakfast Forum: New Features of the Strategic Environment in Northeast Asia
At the Fourth Sejong National Strategy Breakfast
Forum on December 2, 2010, Michael Armacost offered remarks on the security
environment in Northeast Asia, sharing insights from past decades to provide
better contextual understanding of the current regional situation. Armacost provided
suggestions for dealing with a changing North Korea, and spoke to China's
increasing political and economic confidence, regional maritime disputes, the
Democratic Party of Japan's foreign policy, and the future of U.S.-Asia relations.
Korean- and English-language versions of the remarks are available for download.
Lotte Hotel, Seoul, Korea
Michael Armacost
Shorenstein Distinguished Fellow
Speaker
Shorenstein APARC, FSI, Stanford
Lectures
