Searching for a New Identity: Public Diplomacy Challenges of South Korea as a Middle Power

As the traditional diplomacy is being socialized and networked, public diplomacy becomes the primary tool of diplomacy. In the case of middle powers, public diplomacy weighs more highly because it grants them “ample opportunities to gain influence in world affairs far beyond their limited material capabilities” (Gilboa, 2009). Viewed in the context of the government’s contact with the foreign public, it seems promising for middle powers to invest in public diplomacy because wielding soft power is more relevant to public diplomacy than is sheer physical forces they are deficient. South Korea (Korea, hereafter) is no exception. Recently, the middle power concept has gained currency in the academia and policy circle. Although the concept is hardly new, scholars and practitioners have coined it as one of the most useful ways of defining the role of Korea which is playing, or should reasonably aspire, in a changing world (Kim Sangbae 2011; Kim Woosang 2012; Choi Young-chong 2012). This is an important claim because middle power approach requires reevaluation of, and departure from, Korea’s traditional foreign policy that has heavily relied on its alliance with the United States and almost exclusively engaged with the peninsula question.