Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:06:30.742Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Middle Powers and the Rise of China: ‘Identity Norms’ of Dependency and Activism and the Outlook for Japan–South Korea Relations vis-à-vis the Great Powers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2014

KEY-YOUNG SON
KEY-YOUNG SON*
Affiliation:
Asiatic Research Institute, Korea Universityskyquick@hotmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

How do state identities and their accompanying norms affect security behaviour especially when states consider forming alliances or alignments? Are middle powers different from great powers in their security norms and preferences? This article identifies dependency and activism as two ‘identity norms’ that constitute and reproduce medium-sized states as bona fide middle powers. This article argues that, due to the identity norms of a middle power, Japan and South Korea are reluctant to form a bilateral alliance between themselves and their efforts to socialize with China do not necessarily contradict their security relationships with the United States. The first section focuses on the norm of dependency to illustrate whether Japan and South Korea sought to strengthen bilateral alignment in the event of major security crises, provoked by China and North Korea. It argues that a middle power is not disposed to strengthen alignment with another middle power in the event of a national security crisis because of its entrenched norm of dependency on a great power. The second section elaborates the norm of middle power activism. Both Japan and South Korea have engaged in diplomatic efforts to enmesh China in a number of multilateral security mechanisms in order to hedge against the relative decline of US influences in East Asia.

Type
Research Article
Information
Japanese Journal of Political Science , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , March 2014 , pp. 91 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arase, David (2010), ‘Non-traditional Security in China–ASEAN Cooperation: The Institutionalization of Regional Security Cooperation and the Evolution of East Asian Regionalism’, Asian Survey, 50 (4): 808–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brewster, David (2010), ‘The Australia–India Security Declaration: The Quadrilateral Redux?’, Security Challenges, 6 (1): 1–9.Google Scholar
Buzan, Barry (1991), People, States and Fear: An Agenda for International Security Studies in the Post Cold War Era, 2nd edn, London: Harvest Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar
Calder, Kent (2009), Pacific Alliance: Reviving US–Japan Relations, New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Calder, Kent and Ye, Min (2010), The Making of Northeast Asia, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Cha, Victor (1999), Alignment Despite Antagonism: The United States–Korea–Japan Security Triangle, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Cha, Victor (2000), ‘Abandonment, Entrapment, and Neoclassical Realism in Asia: The United States, Japan, and Korea’, International Studies Quarterly, 44 (2): 261–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Choi, Young Nam (2009), ‘South Korea's Regional Strategy and Middle Power Activism’, Journal of East Asian Affairs, 23 (1): 47–68.Google Scholar
Cooper, Andrew, Higgott, Richard, and Nossal, Kim (1993), Relocating Middle Powers: Australia and Canada in a Changing World Order, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.Google Scholar
Cossa, Ralph (ed.) (1999), US–Korea–Japan Relations: Building toward A ‘Virtual Alliance’, Washington, DC: CSIS.Google Scholar
Cox, Robert (1989), ‘Middlepowermanship, Japan, and Future World Order’, International Journal, 44 (4): 823–62.Google Scholar
Eckert, Carter, Lee, Ki-baik, Ick Lew, Young, Robinson, Michael, and Wagner, Edward (1990), Korea Old and New: A History, Seoul: Ilchokak.Google Scholar
Finnemore, Martha and Sikkink, Kathryn (1998), ‘International Norm Dynamics and Political Change’, International Organization, 52 (4): 887–918.Google Scholar
Forsberg, Aaron (2000), America and the Japanese Miracle: The Cold War Context of Japan's Postwar Economic Revival, 1950–1960, Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Friedberg, Aaron (1993/4), ‘Ripe for Rivalry: Prospects for Peace in a Multipolar Asia’, International Security, 18 (3): 5–33.Google Scholar
Friedberg, Aaron (2005), ‘The Future of US–China Relations: Is Conflict Inevitable?’, International Security, 30 (2): 7–45.Google Scholar
Goh, Evelyn (2007/8), ‘Great Powers and Hierarchical Order in Southeast Asia: Analyzing Regional Security Strategies’, International Security, 32 (3): 113–57.Google Scholar
Goh, Evelyn (2008), ‘Hierarchy and the Role of the United States in the East Asian Security Order’, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, 8 (3): 353–77.Google Scholar
Haass, Richard (2007), ‘Asia's Overlooked Great Power’, Council on Foreign Relations.Google Scholar
Hatoyama, Yukio (2009), ‘Japan's New Commitment to Asia: Toward the Realization of an East Asian Community’, 15 November, http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/hatoyama/statement/200911/15singapore_e.html (accessed 23 July 2012).Google Scholar
Hemmer, Christopher and Katzenstein, Peter (2002), ‘Why Is There No NATO in Asia?: Collective Identity, Regionalism, and the Origins of Multilateralism’, International Organization, 56 (3): 575–607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herman, Robert (1996), ‘Identity, Norms, and National Security’, in Katzenstein, P. (ed.), The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics, New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Holslag, Jonathan (2010), ‘China's Roads to Influence’, Asian Survey, 50 (4): 641–62.Google Scholar
Hook, Glenn, Gilson, Julie, Hughes, Christopher, and Dobson, Hugo (2005), Japan's International Relations: Politics, Economics and Security, London: RoutledgeCurzon.Google Scholar
Hund, Markus (2003), ‘ASEAN Plus Three: Towards a New Age of Pan-East Asian Regionalism? A Skeptic's Appraisal’, The Pacific Review, 16 (3): 383–417.Google Scholar
Hundt, David and Kim, Jaechun (2011), ‘Competing Notions of Regionalism in South Korean Politics’, Japanese Journal of Political Science, 12 (2): 251–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ikenberry, John and Takashi, Inoguchi (eds.) (2003), Reinventing the Alliance: US–Japan Security Partnership in an Era of Change, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Kang, David (2003), ‘Getting Asia Wrong: The Need for New Analytical Frameworks’, International Security, 27 (4): 57–85.Google Scholar
Keohane, Robert (1969), ‘Lilliputians’ Dilemmas: Small States in International Politics’, International Organization, 23 (2): 291–310.Google Scholar
Kim, Dae-jung (2006), ‘Regionalism in the Age of Asia’, Global Asia, 1 (1): 10–12.Google Scholar
Kowert, Paul (1998/9), ‘National identity: Inside and Out’, Security Studies, 8 (2/3): 1–34.Google Scholar
Lee, Chung Min (2005), ‘China's Rise, Asia's Dilemma’, National Interest, 81: 88–94 Google Scholar
Lee, Young Wook (2012), ‘Synthesis and Reformulation of Foreign Policy Change: Japan and East Asian Financial Regionalism’, Review of International Studies, 38 (4): 785–807.Google Scholar
Ministry of Defence (2010), ‘Heisei 22nendo nichibei kyodo sogo kunrenni tsuite’ (Regarding the Joint Japan–US Exercise in 2010), http://www.mod.go.jp/jso/press2010/press_pdf/p20101111.pdf (accessed 1 February 2012).Google Scholar
Ministry of Defence (2012), ‘Summary of National Defence Program Guidelines for FY 2011 and Beyond’, http://www.mod.go.jp/e/d_act/d_policy/national.html (accessed 1 January 2012).Google Scholar
Nye, Joseph (1995), ‘East Asian Security: The Case for Deep Engagement’, Foreign Affairs, 74 (4): 90–102.Google Scholar
Oberdorfer, Don (1997), The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History, New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Ozawa, Ichiro (1994), Blueprint for a New Japan, Tokyo: Kodansha International.Google Scholar
Park, Jae Jeok (2011), ‘The US-Led Alliances in the Asia-Pacific: Hedge Against Potential Threats or an Undesirable Multilateral Security Order?’, Pacific Review, 24 (2): 137–58.Google Scholar
Pratt, Cranford (ed.) (1990), Middle Power Internationalism: The North–South Dimension, Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.Google Scholar
Price, Richard (1998), ‘Reversing the Gun Sights: Transnational Civil Society Targets Land Mines’, International Organization, 52 (3): 613–44.Google Scholar
Rangsimaporn, Paradorn (2006), ‘Russia's Debate on Military-Technological Cooperation with China: From Yeltsin to Putin’, Asian Survey, 46 (3): 477–95.Google Scholar
Rathus, Joel (2010), ‘Trilateral Co-operation and the East Asian Community’, East Asian Forum Quarterly, 2 (3): 8–9.Google Scholar
Ravenhill, John (1998), ‘Cycles of Middle Power Activism: Constraint and Choice in Australian and Canadian Foreign Policy’, Australian Journal of International Affairs, 52 (3): 309–27.Google Scholar
Ross, Robert (2006), ‘Balance of Power Politics and the Rise of China: Accommodation and Balancing in East Asia’, Security Studies, 15 (3): 355–95.Google Scholar
Rozman, Gilbert (2007), ‘South Korea and Sino-Japanese Rivalry: A Middle Power's Options within the East Asian Core Triangle’, The Pacific Review, 20 (2): 197–220.Google Scholar
Sajima, Naoko and Tachikawa, Kyochi (2009), Japanese Sea Power: A Maritime Nation's Struggle for Identity, Canberra, Australia: Department of Defence.Google Scholar
Schroeder, Paul (1989), ‘The Nineteenth Century System: Balance of Power or Political Equilibrium?’, Review of International Studies, 15 (2): 135–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soeya, Yoshihide (2005), Nihon No ‘Midoru Pawaa’ Gaikou: Sengo Nihon No Sentaku to Kousou [Japan's ‘Middle Power’ Diplomacy: Postwar Japan's Choices and Conceptions], Tokyo: Chikuma Shinsho.Google Scholar
Son, Key-young (2007), ‘Entrenching “Identity Norms” of Tolerance and Engagement: Lessons from Rapprochement between North and South Korea’, Review of International Studies, 33 (4): 489–509.Google Scholar
Son, Key-young (2011), ‘From a Fault Line to a Catalyst: An Emerging Korean Confederation and the Contour of a Northeast Asian Security Community’, in Seliger, B. and Pascha, W. (eds.), Towards a Northeast Asian Security Community: Implications for Korea's Growth and Economic Development, Washington, DC: Korea Economic Institute.Google Scholar
Terada, Takashi (2010), ‘The Origins of ASEAN+6 and Japan's Initiatives: China's Rise and the Agent-Structure Analysis’, Pacific Review, 23 (1): 71–92.Google Scholar
Ullman, Richard (1983), ‘Redefining Security’, International Security, 8 (1): 129–53.Google Scholar
Ungerer, Carl (2007), ‘The “Middle Power” Concept in Australian Foreign Policy’, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 53 (4): 538–51.Google Scholar
Walt, Stephen (1985), ‘Alliance Formation and the Balance of World Power’, International Security, 9 (4): 3–43.Google Scholar
Walt, Stephen (1987), The Origins of Alliances, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Waltz, Kenneth (1979), Theory of International Politics, New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Yoshihara, Toshi and Perry, Charles (2003), The US–Japan Alliance: Preparing for Korean Reconciliation and Beyond, Dulles, VA: Brassey's.Google Scholar
Zhang, Yongjin (2001), ‘System, Empire and State in Chinese International Relations’, Review of International Studies, 27 (5): 43–63.Google Scholar