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In this remarkable book, South Korea's Grand Strategy: Making Its Own Destiny, Ramon Pacheco Pardo pushes the boundaries of the study of grand strategy by applying it to middle powers, focusing on one in particular: the Republic of Korea (ROK). Pacheco Pardo argues that the country has pursued a consistent grand strategy since the end of the Cold War and across administrations of different political stripes. The ultimate goal has been "to break with centuries of Korea being a 'shrimp among whales,' and for South Korea to be autonomous and make its own destiny" (p. 5). Furthermore, he argues that the ROK has succeeded in this strategy, gaining more independence, voice, and impact regionally and globally.
The book takes a comprehensive approach to the study of South Korea's grand strategy, asking three main research questions that focus on the causal factors, goals, and means of this grand strategy (p. 3). The book's working definition of grand strategy is one that sees grand strategy as "long-term in scope, concerned with the state's most important priorities, and inclusive of all spheres of statecraft (military, diplomatic, and economic)" (p. 3). In addressing the book's questions, Pacheco Pardo offers an excellent balance of theoretical discussion, historical background, and analytical review of behavior during each Korean presidency across the four main concentric geographic spheres envisioned in the strategy (the triangular core made of North Korea, the United States, and China; East Asia; greater Eurasia and the Indian Ocean; and global governance) (p. 83). The evidence presented is thorough and comprehensive, including review of 2,300 government documents and several hundred interviews and background conversations, both inside and outside South Korea. The book covers the variation of government actions over the 34-year period from 1988 to 2022 with clear writing and a good mix of focused theoretical consistence and texture. Ultimately, the book argues that the common threads and similarity of behavior across the eight administrations are much stronger than the ideological and tactical differences among those various governments.
The book makes several major contributions to the fields of international relations and ROK studies and fills important gaps.
First, the book offers an excellent theoretical chapter on the intellectual history, scope, and limits of the concept of grand strategy. It covers the...