ABSTRACT
The Republic of Korea (ROK) has a unique geostrategic position, sharing its sole land border with its greatest threat, and sandwiched between the region’s two traditional great power rivals in China and Japan. Since the end of World War II, the ROK’s foreign policy has been built on the bedrock of its alliance with the US, deterring threats from North Korea, the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In recent years, the rise of China as a regional and world power has presented the ROK with a dilemma: to turn toward the emerging hegemon on its doorstep or to stay with the erstwhile – but increasingly unpredictable and relatively weaker – US. This chapter explores this dilemma, showing that while the ROK has maintained its alliance with the US to ‘hedge’ against the threat of a rising China, it is also the subject of a sustained attempt at a Chinese ‘wedge’, through which the PRC seeks to create division in the US–ROK alliance for its own benefit. While the alliance has thus far resisted, a continuance of the fluctuations in the US’ Asia policy would likely create the conditions under which such a policy might succeed.
