South Korea’s Grand Strategy: Making Its Own Destiny

On Wednesday, April 10, the Clements-Strauss Asia Policy Program hosted Ramon Pacheco Pardo, Professor of International Relations at King’s College London and the KF-VUB Korea Chair at the Brussels School of Governance of Vrije Universiteit Brussel, for a book talk on South Korea’s Grand Strategy: Making Its Own Destiny.

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Since the end of the Cold War, South Korea has taken on a greater role in global affairs. Ramon Pacheco Pardo provides a groundbreaking analysis of South Korea’s foreign policy from its transition to democracy in the late 1980s through the present day, arguing that the country’s approach to the world constitutes a grand strategy. This book examines the key factors and goals that shape South Korea’s long-term strategy, with analysis that brings together its diplomatic, military, economic, and soft-power components. Pacheco Pardo shows that South Korea’s fundamental aim has been to move beyond its past as a “shrimp among whales” and instead attain autonomy and freedom of action. He explores how South Korean leaders across parties and governments have pursued security, prosperity, and status. Pacheco Pardo tracks South Korea’s core relationships with North Korea, the United States, and China, and he details the country’s objectives and policies across East Asia, the Asia-Pacific region, and the rest of the world. Drawing on in-depth interviews with past and present policy makers, this book presents an analytical account of how South Korean strategy is made and practiced. It expertly lays out South Korea’s grand strategy and, more broadly, makes a compelling case that middle powers like South Korea can implement grand strategies.

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Ramon Pacheco Pardo is Professor of International Relations at King’s College London and the KF-VUB Korea Chair at the Brussels School of Governance of Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Prof. Pacheco Pardo is also Adjunct Fellow (Non-Resident) with the Korea Chair at CSIS, Non-Resident Fellow with Sejong Institute, Scientific Council Member at Elcano Royal Institute and Committee Member at CSCAP EU.

His publications include the books Korea: A New History of South & North (Yale University Press, 2023; with Victor Cha), South Korea’s Grand Strategy: Making Its Own Destiny (Columbia University Press, 2023), Shrimp to Whale: South Korea from the Forgotten War to K-Pop (Hurst and Oxford University Press, 2022) and North Korea-US Relations from Kim Jong Il to Kim Jong Un (Routledge, 2019).

He has participated in track 1.5 and 2 dialogues with South Korea, North Korea, China, Japan and the United States. Prof. Pacheco Pardo has testified before the European Parliament and consulted and advised NATO, the OECD and the governments of Canada, the EU, South Korea, Spain, the UK and the United States, among others. He is a frequent media commentator on North East Asian affairs and EU-East Asia relations.

The Asia Policy Program is a joint effort of the Clements Center for National Security and the Strauss Center for International Security and Law.