Transcript of the 2nd Korea-US Alliance Conference, Part 1 Lecture

Toward Korea-US Complex Alliance

Date: November 2008

Lecturers: Professor Ha Young-sun (Seoul National University), Professor Kent Calder (Johns Hopkins University, USA)

Moderator: Professor Chun Jae-sung (Seoul National University)

Lecture by Professor Ha Young-sun

As the moderator just mentioned, Dr. Campbell was scheduled to give the keynote address, but it seems he was unable to come to Korea to lecture due to his role in the Obama administration's transition process. I feel like a student who has to answer an unprepared question on the spot in an exam. To put it another way, I feel the frustration of a musician who has to perform a new piece without prior practice. Conversely, I believe it will be a very interesting 25 minutes for the audience. Because I myself won't know how the talk will begin or end until it's over, I think it will be an enjoyable 25 minutes for all of us.

Despite the long history of the Korea-US alliance, the events of the past month or two will have a profound impact on its future. One is the "global financial crisis" that the world and Korea are experiencing together, and the other is the inauguration of the Obama administration in the United States. As these two events will overshadow other matters for the time being, I have no choice but to discuss them. Nevertheless, I will begin by recounting past events. As Chairman Lee Hong-koo introduced, EAI began a new study of the Korea-US alliance five years ago. The results of that initial work were published two years ago as a booklet titled "Vision and Tasks for the Korea-US Alliance." In a nutshell, our thinking at the beginning of the 21st century was, "Shouldn't the discussion on the Korea-US alliance move beyond the level of simple Cold War or post-Cold War dynamics?" At the same time, we believed that an approach transcending the outdated domestic divisions of conservative and progressive was necessary. We started from the consideration of how to historically define the next 100 years of the 21st century and establish the Korea-US alliance within that framework. We reached the conclusion that "the era we are facing is neither simply modern nor simply postmodern. The 21st century is an era of dilemma where we must experience both modern and postmodern simultaneously. Therefore, the expression used to define the era must also be complex." Under this definition of the era, the Korea-US alliance had to be reborn as a 'complex alliance'.

What, then, are modern alliances, postmodern alliances, and 'complex alliances'? A modern alliance involves actors, primarily states, engaging in close joint efforts for common goals of survival, predominantly on the military stage and secondarily on the economic stage. A postmodern alliance, on the other hand, involves actors beyond the state—transnational and subnational actors—working together for common life goals on new stages such as the environment, culture, and knowledge. A 'complex alliance' signifies a combination of these two alliance forms.

The term 'complex' may not have garnered as much domestic and international attention as we had hoped, perhaps due to its perceived complexity. However, a review of policy research papers from think tanks during the recent US presidential election reveals discussions remarkably similar to those we have been having. Among these, I will introduce a representative study from the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a think tank led by Dr. Campbell, who advised on Obama's foreign and security policy during the election and is currently making significant contributions to the formation of the new US administration. The title of the paper is 'The Power of Balance: America in iAsia,' a title that is already familiar to us. This is because we are already acquainted with the term 'Balance of Power' (hereinafter referred to as BOP). This policy report reinterprets the term BOP, using the concept of 'Power of Balance' (hereinafter referred to as POB) as its title and begins by explaining the meaning of this concept. Although Dr. Campbell could not be here today, had he delivered the lecture, the core content would have been the same as what I will discuss here today. [Omitted]