Joseph Nye, who coined the term “soft power”, notes: “A country’s soft power rests on three resources: its culture, its political values, and its foreign policies. I believe Korea is well-endowed with soft power on culture.” Indeed, South Korea’s soft power is rising in the world due to the popularity of the “Korean wave” (hallyu in Korean) such as K-pop and K-drama.
Since the late 1990s, Korean popular culture and their idols have become immensely popular in various ASEAN countries. Korea’s cultural popularity has positively influenced its bilateral relations with Southeast Asian countries and burnished its image in the region. For instance, in April 2022, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha called for closer bilateral cooperation to promote soft power for mutual benefits.
Indeed, Republic of Korea–ASEAN relations have strengthened over the years. The Yoon Suk-yeol administration intends to raise this relationship to new heights by pursuing the policy of “global pivotal state that advances freedom, peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond” with an emphasis on ASEAN. Seoul will bolster its partnership with ASEAN, particularly in areas of human resources, public health, culture and digital infrastructure, among others.
This seminar aims to assess Korea’s soft power and its impact on bilateral relations with specific Southeast Asian countries. Panellists will also analyse how the major powers of the United States, China and Japan have pursued their soft power strategies towards ASEAN. This seminar, upon examining Korea’s soft power strategy and policies, envisages to generate policy advice, suggestions and comments with a view to answering the following questions: How to enhance Korea’s soft power? How to forge a synergy between its soft power and foreign policies towards ASEAN? How to strengthen its diplomatic and economic ties with ASEAN by harnessing of its soft power?
Programme and bios
Video recording on YouTube
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