6. The Implications of Civic
Diplomacy for ROK Foreign Policy
Kiho Yi and Peter Hayes
Contributing authors: Joan Diamond, Steven Denney, Christopher Green, and Jungmin Seo
Introduction
This chapter focuses on the Republic of Korea and the implications for its
foreign policy of the actual and potential role of civil society in solving
complex global problems in Northeast Asia. It looks at the impact on
ROK foreign policy of the emergence of independent civic diplomacy
originating from civil society rather than the state. We commence this
chapter by examining the characteristics of international affairs and inter-
state relations in Northeast Asia since the end of the Cold War — basically,
the shift from twentieth-century, backwards-looking foreign policy focused
on military power and nation-state building to a twenty-first century,
forwards-looking foreign policy aimed at building a regional community.
This transition left many “traditional” security issues outstanding, such as
the living history of past colonial and imperial adventures in some states,
the multigenerational imprint of wars, and territorial disputes. New, often
cross-border issues have arisen, however, many of which originate in the
region but are global in nature: they are urgent and beyond the ability of
any single nation-state to address.
© 2015 Kiho Yi and Peter Hayes , CC BY 4.0 htp://dx.doi.org/ŗŖ.ŗŗŜŚŝ/OBP.ŖŖś9.ŖŜ