ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relative explanatory power of international systemic and domestic institutional determinants within the context of the transitional phase from 1988 to 1992. After an examination of theoretical hypotheses, it summarizes critical determinants of security policy change and evaluates the institutional capacity of South Korea's security policy-making institutions. South Korea's trade with China, Russia, and North Korea increased the importance of geo-economic factors as the primary means of maintaining regional stability and peace. South Korea's international relations were formatted by competitive diplomacy during the Cold War. But with the 1988 nordpolitik, its geo-political strategies were changed to the promotion of mutually beneficial relations with the Soviet Union/Russia, China, North Korea, and other communist countries. The Cold War goals of political legitimacy, economic development, and deterrence were shifted to those of democratic consolidation, economic liberalization, and promotion of regional interdependence for the peaceful process of unification.
