Middle powers after the middle power moment

What happens to middle powers after the middle-power moment?

Behavioral characteristics like activist diplomacy, coalition building, niche diplomacy and good international citizenship, which underpin norm entrepreneurship, always ultimately relied upon the support of the dominant power. That era may be over, and hopes of a revival rest on the illusion of a middle-power moment. So, what happens to middle powers after the middle-power moment?

Recent successes in addressing the COVID-19 outbreak have buttressed South Korea’s claims of a global middle-power role. For all intents and purposes, South Korea is a middle power (even though I’ve previously argued that it was not). Indeed, much of the recent scholarship and hopes for a middle-power revival centred on South Korea. Yet, there were always fundamental qualities that made it intrinsically distinct from the prototypes of Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden or Norway. South Korea’s distinct qualities may present a picture of middle powers after the middle-power moment.

First, South Korea is…