South Korea and the middle power revival school

Today, it invites ridicule to suggest South Korea is anything but a middle power

Two decades ago, South Korea was rarely called a middle power. Today, it invites ridicule to suggest South Korea is anything but a middle power. Given the concept’s ambiguity and lackluster academic credentials, why did the definition become so widely applied?

The immediate answer is obvious. South Korea started to be labeled a middle power because of its spectacular growth. South Korea transformed from an “economic basket case” to an “economic miracle” between the 1960s and the 1990s. As noted by Gareth Evans and Bruce Grant, by the late 1980s there was a “good case” to call South Korea a middle power. Despite this, most Korean academics during the period remained focused on more immediately relevant issues, including development and democratization, security and North Korea, and major power relations. Widespread domestic use of the label would wait another decade for a new generation of academics.

South Korea’s well-known 386 generation relates to individuals who were in their 30s in …