[Indo-Pacific Strategy Special Report] I. General Discussion: South Korea's Global Indo-Pacific Strategy

I. Great Transformation of the World Order

The world order is at a moment of great transformation. The strategic competition between the two great powers, the United States and China, has shifted from trade and advanced technology to values and norms, deepening mutual distrust. The heightened conflict is expanding into the military and security domains, raising concerns about clashes between competitive orders. Concurrently, Russia's invasion of Ukraine is intensifying the confrontation between Eastern and Western blocs, while simultaneously shaking the foundations of the existing rules-based international order, including multilateral consensus, adherence to international law, respect for sovereignty, and peaceful resolution of disputes. As geopolitical competition intensifies, the liberal international economic order is also facing a crisis due to the securitization of advanced technology competition, the weaponization of economic interdependence, and the restructuring and economic bloc formation of supply chains.

Behind this great turmoil, a massive transformation of the world economic order is underway. Neoliberal globalization, which gained momentum after the end of the Cold War, brought prosperity to the entire globe, but due to excessive market competition, it has led to domestic economic inequality, social polarization, and political division, giving rise to populism and economic nationalism. As a result, countries have gravitated towards self-interest and protectionism, and over the past decade, we have witnessed a retreat of globalization, or deglobalization, characterized by reduced trade, restricted labor mobility, and the restructuring of global supply chains.

Deglobalization is in direct conflict with the health crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, energy and food crises, and the risks of global inflation and economic recession. Addressing these common transnational challenges requires more active and effective international cooperation and global governance. However, major powers are maintaining inward-looking, self-interested, and nationalistic stances, making collective responses to problem-solving even more difficult. As an open trading nation situated on the fault line of great power competition, South Korea is directly exposed to global challenges such as deglobalization, great power strategic competition, and common transnational threats to humanity. South Korea must establish a whole-of-government foreign strategy with a long-term, macroscopic perspective that looks beyond the current five-year administration to the next generation. It must undertake the task of establishing a new and flexible rules-based international order that prevents the reversal of globalization and prevents great power competition from escalating into armed conflict, moving beyond mutually destructive competition towards coexistence.

II. Seeking a Global Regional Strategy

To respond to the global challenges outlined above, a global governance system in the true sense of the word must be established, but this is realistically difficult to expect. Instead, major world powers are taking action to resolve issues at the regional level. While their past regional strategies aimed to mobilize the collective efforts of regional actors to address regional problems, current strategies can be seen as seeking regional governance to respond to global challenges. This perception is based on the spatial concept of a 'global region.' A global region emphasizes the global nature of regional space by interfacing regional and global spaces.[1]This can be described as a space where issues, challenges, and strategies addressed at the global level are projected onto the regional sphere, creating a multilayered and functionally multifaceted overlapping space. Based on this regional concept, the United States seeks to protect its global interests by connecting its Indo-Pacific regional strategy with its Euro-Atlantic regional strategy, while China is pursuing its Belt and Road Initiative and Asia-Pacific strategy within the framework of its Global Security Initiative and Global Development Initiative.

South Korea must also establish a global regional strategy that defines and designs regional spaces based on globally shared interests and objectives. South Korea is now a developed country ranked among the top 10 globally by GDP, a military power ranked sixth globally in military spending, a model developing country that has achieved industrialization and democratization in a short period, and a cultural powerhouse leading global popular culture. In line with the increased expectations and demands from the international community due to its elevated international status, it is time to readjust its international role based on an expanded concept of space and time, responding proactively and preemptively.

III. Why the Indo-Pacific?

The stage for South Korea to address global issues and build a rules-based international order to protect its national interests is the Indo-Pacific (hereafter, IP) region. The IP region is a geographical area that parallels global upheavals and a strategic space for realizing South Korea's expanded national interests. Historically, South Korea's regional concept was confined to the narrow geographical areas of the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia. Since the post-Cold War era, successive South Korean governments have designated Northeast Asia as their strategic space. As seen in initiatives such as "Northeast Asia Era of Peace and Prosperity," "Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative," and "Northeast Asia Plus Community of Responsibility Initiative," the government remained fixated on using regional cooperation to resolve the North Korean issue. These were attempts to define a strategic space including the surrounding four major powers and create a cooperative system with them to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula. However, as South Korea's external economic opportunities and security linkages have significantly expanded, and its engagement with regional cooperation organizations has increased, the South Korean government has reached a point where it must invest diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military resources in a broader regional space to enhance national interests and protect its values.

Over the past decade, the Indo-Pacific has emerged as the core region of the world. As a vast geographical area connecting the Pacific and Indian Oceans, it accounts for 63% of global GDP and 46% of global trade, and encompasses key shipping routes that handle half of the world's maritime transport. Regional trade and supply chains, centered around South Korea, China, and Japan, along with Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, are now expanding to the entire Southeast Asian region, Australia, and South Asia, including India. As the movement of goods and capital within the IP unit becomes more active, the movement of labor, particularly centered around India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Pakistan, is also expanding, leading to increased economic complementarity and simultaneous diffusion and deepening of economic integration. Expanding South Korea's regional strategy, which has focused on Northeast Asia, to the IP region goes beyond merely responding to current trends; it signifies a future-oriented choice to expand and deepen partnerships with India and Southeast Asian countries, which are expected to be the drivers of global economic growth over the next 30 years.

In terms of security, the IP region is home to the world's most crucial maritime transport routes connecting the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and its strategic value is increasing as major powers compete for maritime access. With the growing strategic importance in various areas, including North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, tensions in the Taiwan Strait, disputes in the South China Sea, competition in advanced dual-use technologies, and threats to democracy, not only the United States, Japan, India, Australia, and ASEAN countries, but also major European Union (EU) countries outside the region are establishing independent regional policies centered on the IP. South Korea is also at a point where it needs to establish a systematic IP strategy from a comprehensive security perspective, including economic security.

IV. Core Objectives of South Korea's Global Indo-Pacific Strategy

South Korea's adoption of an IP strategy does not mean replacing its existing regional concept with the IP. As mentioned earlier, major powers are establishing regional strategies that delineate and connect multiple geographical spaces through the concept of a 'global region.' Southeast Asian countries, for instance, employ layered regional strategies, such as presenting an 'Indo-Pacific outlook' based on the ASEAN regional cooperation framework. Similarly, South Korea should perceive the IP region not as a fixed geographical area, but as a 'global region' space where multiple geographical areas overlap. In this regard, South Korea's Global Indo-Pacific Strategy can be considered a spatial strategy of multiplicity, encompassing existing Northeast and East Asian spaces and variously delineated according to functional areas and issue domains.

South Korea's Global Indo-Pacific Strategy needs to aim for a rules-based IP order that fulfills three core objectives. First, it is to prevent the reversal of globalization and promote reglobalization as a better form of globalization. The deglobalization currently unfolding among major world powers is unlikely to be a viable alternative for the future. In fact, globalization, accompanied by advancements in information and communications technology (ICT) and the expansion of global supply chains, has driven global economic growth over the past 40 years. Between 1980 and 2020, world trade increased approximately tenfold, foreign direct investment increased seventeenfold, and labor migration increased threefold. Despite a relative reduction in goods trade and labor migration over the past decade based on GDP, capital market integration and digital trade have actually increased, and non-state actors' global public networks continue to exert positive political functions. Furthermore, the challenges we face today are global in nature, requiring a response from the entire global community, not just individual nations. The objective of the future IP strategy is reglobalization, that is, to continue the positive aspects of globalization as a prevailing trend of the times, while simultaneously establishing open and fair rules and norms to foster an inclusive economic and technological ecosystem domestically and internationally, and to enhance the stability and resilience of supply chains.

The second objective is to lead international cooperation in response to transnational challenges and threats. Climate change, health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, energy and food crises, and terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction are significant threats that expose the flaws of modern civilization. Since no single country can resolve these issues alone, nations and non-state actors must engage in collective responses through institutional design at the global level. However, the current trend of deglobalization, as described above, makes such efforts difficult. South Korea must actively participate in establishing rules and norms that effectively address transnational challenges and enable sustainable development, based on the value of post-modern coexistence. Furthermore, wisdom must be gathered to elicit cooperation between the US and China in this process.

The third objective is to manage the strategic competition between the US and China to prevent it from escalating into conflict involving military force, and to design the IP security space to enable competition based on rules. The IP region contains geopolitical flashpoints such as the Taiwan Strait, the East and South China Seas, and the Korean Peninsula. Regional actors face the critical task of creating a regional security order to ensure strategic stability before the possibility of direct military conflict between the US and China rapidly increases. The US is exhibiting behavior that undermines its liberal hegemonic authority, and China is also strengthening its authoritarian regime and undermining its legitimacy as a future hegemon through its self-centered and coercive diplomacy. Therefore, if they cannot lead the future order alone, mid-tier powers such as South Korea must actively step forward in solidarity and cooperation to establish IP regional security norms, foreign policy principles, and rules for coexistence.

V. Operating System for the Indo-Pacific Region: Vision and Principles

South Korea's Global Indo-Pacific Strategy should focus on constructing and reconstructing the regional order, rather than setting and implementing individual agendas. This report uses the concept of an 'operating system' to signify respect for the laws, rules, institutions, and norms that constitute the regional order, and aims to present the fundamental elements (values and principles) of the IP regional operating system.

The IP operating system emphasizes, above all, the establishment of a rules-based order. Regional actors must compete and cooperate within the framework of rules, including informal norms shaped by historical experience, principles developed by organizations like ASEAN, and international laws and treaties established through international organizations such as the UN, GATT-WTO, and IMF. Economic competition, alliances, and cooperation must be based on fair international rules and norms, and informal and unfair trade practices or the weaponization of economic relations through economic coercion must be rejected. Furthermore, it opposes unilateral changes to the status quo by force and supports the peaceful resolution of disputes based on multilateral consensus, international law, and norms, as well as freedom of navigation.

South Korea's IP operating system has a vision of "a symbiotic and prosperous Indo-Pacific based on universal values." First, the IP operating system is based on universal and liberal values such as human rights, the rule of law, multilateralism, and free trade. It strengthens solidarity with countries that share universal values to realize governance that implements democratic international cooperation and democratic decision-making systems. It respects the sovereign choices of individual nations and achieves mutual respect for systems, development models, and self-determination.

Second, the IP operating system aims for peaceful coexistence among humans, groups, and nations. It pursues coexistence between humans, between nations, and between humans and nature, moving beyond the principles of survival of the fittest and natural selection. It seeks a security order that can lead to symbiosis through co-evolution, mitigating military conflict between the US and China, and an economic-technological ecosystem of coexistence.

Third, the IP operating system pursues common prosperity for the countries in the region. It aims to be a network platform that leads to common prosperity by enhancing complementarity between diverse economic systems, ensuring the stability and resilience of interdependence, and leveraging South Korea's experience and assets to provide tangible benefits to regional countries through reciprocal cooperation.

The IP operating system, pursuing this vision, can be operated according to the following six principles. First, the core principle of the IP operating system is connectivity. Connectivity in trade, supply chains, services, and digital networks can be strengthened, and regional integration can be deepened through infrastructure investment. The utilization of multilateral institutional frameworks such as RCEP, CPTPP, and IPEF is particularly crucial. Expanding multilateral cooperation networks, especially in security, counter-terrorism, natural disaster response, and transnational threat response, is also important.

Second is the principle of openness. Ensuring openness is crucial for designing the IP region as a space where competition and cooperation can harmonize. Even amidst excessive competition among regional countries, if the principle of openness is maintained, continuous improvement in complementarity and interdependence becomes possible. To counteract the excessive securitization and bloc formation of advanced technologies such as semiconductors and batteries, a technological and economic cooperation system must be established through the maintenance of openness.

Third is the principle of inclusiveness. South Korea's IP strategy does not aim to contain or exclude any specific country. As long as a country respects the principles and norms of the region, any nation can participate in security cooperation to counter common threats. Extending the principles of connectivity and openness, efforts should be made to contribute to the formation of an inclusive and cooperative IP technological and economic ecosystem, and domestically, globalization must be managed and practiced democratically so that its economic fruits are shared across society.

Fourth is the principle of resilience. In the wake of events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, wars, and US-China strategic competition, ensuring the stability of national economies and the resilience of supply chains has become a matter of vital importance. The IP region must move towards resilient reglobalization through inter-state cooperation and coordination efforts, including preventing recurrence and early warning of supply chain disruptions, and in response to climate change. For bilateral and multilateral cooperation with island nations in the IP region, infrastructure support and the establishment of monitoring systems should be carried out in accordance with the principle of resilience.

Fifth is the principle of sustainability. This principle is central to decision-making processes concerning climate change or ecological limits in the IP region, as well as population changes, resource consumption, and economic growth. In terms of development cooperation in the IP region, emphasis should be placed on infrastructure investment based on the principle of sustainability, particularly green ODA.

Sixth is the principle of adaptability. The IP operating system should operate in an open-source manner, allowing all countries in the region to express their preferences and contribute to decision-making. It should be understood as a system that adapts and evolves according to changing realities, rather than a fixed architecture. As the IP order is still in the making, South Korea's IP strategy should actively participate in the design and operation of the IP operating system, focusing on pursuing shared interests and values.

[Figure 1] Goals, Vision, and Principles of South Korea's Indo-Pacific Strategy

VI. Action Plan

In accordance with these operating principles, South Korea must create a complex network in the IP region by connecting across issue areas such as trade, investment, finance, advanced technology, energy, ecological environment, and culture, while simultaneously utilizing multilayered networks including bilateral, minilateral, regional organizations, and non-state actors. The specific action plan for this is as follows.

1. Active Participation in US-led Complex Regional Networks

Cooperation with the United States is crucial for building a rules-based Indo-Pacific order for coexistence and prosperity. Beyond the military domain, South Korea must actively participate in minilateral networks such as the expanded ROK-US alliance, which serves as the core axis, encompassing strategic economic and technological partnerships and joint responses to global challenges like climate change and health security, as well as ROK-US-Japan cooperation and Quad Plus.

2. Continuous and Expanded Strategic Cooperation with China

As the geopolitical and geo-economic importance of the IP region increases, great power competition and confrontation are escalating, raising concerns that South Korea's IP strategy may inadvertently become entangled in great power confrontation. In response, South Korea must handle its relationship with China with caution and sensitivity. Based on mutual understanding and respect for differences in systems, values, and ideologies between the two countries, efforts should be made to build a future-oriented relationship centered on functional cooperation and to enhance mutual resilience against common transnational challenges.

3. Strengthening Partnership with ASEAN and India

The focus of the IP strategy is on strengthening strategic cooperation with ASEAN and India. South Korea must expand its multifaceted engagement with this region, which is a driving force of global economic growth, in areas such as trade, investment, technology, environment, and maritime security. It is essential to affirm ASEAN centrality in IP cooperation and to strive to share IP vision and values through bilateral and multilateral cooperation with India, the world's largest democracy. While continuously strengthening cooperation for North Korea's denuclearization and Myanmar's democratization, it is necessary to broaden the scope of cooperation to areas such as health, space, cyber security, and the defense industry.

4. Promoting Multilateral Economic Networks for Reglobalization

South Korea must play a pivotal role in restoring a multilateral international economic order geared towards inclusive globalization, while controlling the resurgence of protectionism and unilateralism through the expansion and upgrading of existing trade agreements such as RCEP and CPTPP, enhancing their mutual consistency and complementarity, and restoring the functionality of the WTO. Furthermore, to resolve supply chain instability and prevent excessive securitization of supply chains, it should pursue resilient reglobalization through multilateral efforts, including the IPEF. In this process, it is necessary to pursue cooperation with like-minded countries in the region that share concerns and interests with South Korea, at bilateral, minilateral, and regional levels, and to utilize this for regional-global linkage.

5. Building Sectoral Complex Technology Cooperation Networks and Serving as a Bridge Between Developed and Developing Countries

In an era of technological geopolitics dominated by competition, exclusion, and exclusive choices, South Korea contributes to the formation of an inclusive and cooperative technological ecosystem in the IP region. Utilizing existing bilateral, minilateral, and multilateral cooperation in various sectors such as semiconductor supply chains, AI, 5G, cyber, quantum computing, clean energy, digital trade platforms, and biotechnology, South Korea, reflecting its status as a mid-tier power, will serve as a bridge for cooperation between developed and developing countries.

6. Active Contribution to Development Cooperation and Infrastructure Cooperation

South Korea possesses the capacity to reduce the infrastructure gap in the IP region and contribute to the coexistence and shared prosperity of the regional ecosystem. Centered on the digital information and communication sector, where South Korea has strengths, it must actively provide development assistance to enhance connectivity in ASEAN and offer green ODA to help developing countries respond to climate change and achieve the SDGs. To this end, it is necessary to expand inclusive partnerships with regional communities in the region.

7. Pursuing Environmental Initiatives Considering Eco-Tech-Economic Linkages

South Korea will focus on finding mutually beneficial points to ensure that the strategic competition between the US and China does not lead to a breakdown in dialogue and cooperation in the area of ecological environment cooperation, which is a domain of common human interest. In particular, recognizing that addressing climate issues through multilateral cooperation presents opportunities for economic and technological innovation, policies will be pursued that link climate change response with national interests in areas such as renewable energy utilization, green hydrogen partnerships, green shipping networks, electric and hydrogen vehicle production and development, and carbon markets.

8. Preventing Armed Conflict and Managing Crises Based on Coexistence Values and Rules

As the US-China strategic competition continues for a considerable period, crises and tensions in geopolitical flashpoints such as Taiwan, North Korea, and the South and East China Seas are expected to intensify in the short term. Therefore, it is imperative to manage crises to prevent competition between the two countries from escalating into military conflict. South Korea should articulate its principles and conduct diplomacy based on coexistence values, such as the prohibition of changing the status quo by force or arms, the resolution of disputes based on multilateral norms, and freedom of navigation and non-proliferation, and encourage the US and China to compete based on these rules.

9. Pursuing Multilayered Regional Security Cooperation Networks with Like-Minded Countries

Amidst the US-China competition taking on the characteristics of great power politics, South Korea must prevent the transformation of the existing hub-and-spoke US alliance system in the region into a hierarchical security cooperation system, which could generate new conflicts. By identifying the interests and threat perceptions of countries in critical conflict zones such as the South China Sea, East China Sea, Taiwan Strait, and the Korean Peninsula, efforts should be made to establish a division of labor in multilayered security cooperation that contributes to the formation of a desirable security order based on this understanding.■

[1]The intellectual trend emphasizing the global character of regional space can be found in Peter Katzenstein, A World of Regions: Asia and Europe in the American Imperium(Ithaca: Cornell University Press 2005); Mary Farrell, Bjorn Hettne, and Luk Van Langenhove (eds), Global Politics of Regionalism(London: Pluto 2005); Fredrik Soderbaum, Rethinking Regionalism (Baisingstoke: Palgrave 2016); and Maria Lagutina, "The Global Region: A Concept for Understanding Regional Processes in Global Era," The Journal of Cross-regional Dialogue (2020 Special Issue).

■ Author: Son Yeol_President of EAI. Professor at Yonsei University's Graduate School of International Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago and previously taught at Chung-Ang University. He is currently a Professor at Yonsei University's Graduate School of International Studies and President of the East Asia Institute (EAI). He has served as Dean of Yonsei University's Graduate School of International Studies, Head of the Underwood International College, Director of the Institute for Future Strategies, and Director of the Institute for International Studies. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo, and a Visiting Scholar at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and the University of California (Berkeley). He served as President of the Korean Association of International Studies (2019) and President of the Association for Japanese Studies (2012). He has been a Fulbright Fellow, MacArthur Fellow, Senior Fellow at the Advanced Research Institute of Waseda University, and a consultant for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, the Northeast Asian History Foundation, and the Korea Foundation. He was also a specialist member of the Committee for the Northeast Asian Era. His research areas include Japanese foreign policy, international political economy, East Asian international politics, and public diplomacy. His recent publications include 『2022 대통령의 성공조건』 (Conditions for Presidential Success in 2022) (2021, co-edited), 『2022 신정부 외교정책제언』 (Foreign Policy Proposals for the New Government in 2022) (2021, co-edited), 『BTS의 글로벌 매력 이야기』 (The Story of BTS's Global Appeal) (2021, co-edited), 『위기 이후 한국의 선택』 (Korea's Choices After the Crisis) (2021, co-edited), Japan and Asia's Contested Order (2019, with T. J. Pempel), Understanding Public Diplomacy in East Asia (2016, with Jan Melissen), “South Korea under US-China Rivalry: the Dynamics of the Economic-Security Nexus in the Trade Policymaking,” The Pacific Review 23, 6 (2019), and 『한국의 중견국외교』 (Middle Power Diplomacy of Korea) (2017, co-edited).

■ Managed and Edited by: Park Han-soo, EAI Research Assistant

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