Abstract
Following the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis (AFC), South Korea and Japan have increased efforts to promote regionalism. Over time, despite facing similar external challenges, South Korea and Japan have pursued diverging policy stances on regionalism. The divergence can be observed in terms of geographic scope, membership, and agenda.In the context of the regional strategic environment, which encompasses issues such as China’s rise, North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, and management of their respective alliance relations with the United States (US), an understanding of the rationale behind South Korea and Japan’s policy stances on regionalism can provide insight on how these two Northeast Asian states attempted to address regional challenges. Using a neoclassical realist framework, this thesis assesses the nature of the systemic environment faced by South Korea and Japan after the AFC and traces how domestic factors, namely, leader images and strategic culture, affected the two states’ position on regionalism from 1997 to 2007. This thesis illustrates the two countries’ shift from overlapping positions on regionalism (from 1997 to 2001) to diverging positions (from 2002 to 2005) before finally adopting disparate policy stances on regionalism (from 2006 to 2007).
| Date of Award | 1 Feb 2022 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Ramon Pacheco Pardo (Supervisor) |