The New South Korean Government: Impact on the Region and on the US-Korea Alliance

The Moynihan Institute's East Asia Program presents George Washington University Fellow Stephen Costello.

The new South Korean government elected four months ago is unusual and can have major impacts on East Asian regional diplomacy and the Korea-US alliance. Domestically, democrats have wrested political control from the persistent remnants of previous dictatorial and authoritarian regimes. That struggle is not over. Internationally, the country will resume its project to take a central place in diplomatic and strategic leadership in the region, and with its U.S. ally. That project began in earnest more than 25 years ago, and it remains central to Seoul’s security and prosperity.

Costello argues that the geopolitical landscape for South Korea is propitious, despite ongoing turmoil in Ukraine, the Middle East and elsewhere. This is partly the result of Japan and Australia having competent non-ideologues in leadership, and partly because China and North Korea do not have pressing reasons to pursue military adventurism. But it is also because the U.S. influence and impact on the region has been declining for years and that decline is now accelerating. The specific nature of this Korean government, together with a fluid and less US-centric environment, may open doors to positive dealmaking and recognition of shared interests surrounding the Korean Peninsula.

Stephen Costello is a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute and a non-resident scholar at the Institute for Korean Studies at George Washington University. Since 1990, he has been a political consultant, policy analyst, columnist and facilitator of U..S-Korea dialogue.

Working mainly in Washington and Seoul, Costello has run think tank programs and consulted with companies, embassies, government officials and former officials, academics and scholars in both capitals. In these three decades, he has maintained regular contact with civic groups, politicians and journalists focusing on the urgent pending issues in Korea, on the Peninsula and in the East Asia region. He has also chronicled the shifting U.S. policies toward the region.  Some of Costello’s writings can be found on the East Asia Forum (Australia National University), the Korea Times, and through the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.