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Elite opinion and the “belt and road” debate in South Korea

Version 2 2024-06-03, 12:29
Version 1 2018-11-14, 10:37
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-03, 12:29 authored by David HundtDavid Hundt, S Kim
This article analyses elite opinion in South Korea about China's 'One Belt, One Road' (OBOR) in order to better understand how this Asia–Pacific middle power and US ally is approaching the initiative. Through a close analysis of the writing of foreign-policy elites, the article finds that OBOR was generally depicted as significant to China's re-emergence in regional and global affairs, but not as wholly detrimental to South Korean interests. Elites did not speak with one voice, but presented the government with a comparatively sanguine view of OBOR. The debate, we illustrate, created unlikely alliances between left- and right-leaning elites about some aspects of the initiative, but it also revealed tensions among conservative and centrist elites. In seeking to demonstrate their relevance to policymakers, however, elites inadvertently underlined their growing distance from the general public.

History

Journal

Pacific Affairs

Volume

92

Season

March

Pagination

27-48

Location

Vancouver, Canada

ISSN

0030-851X

eISSN

1715-3379

Language

English

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2019, University of British Columbia

Issue

1

Publisher

PACIFIC AFFAIRS UNIV BRITISH COLUMBIA