[Special Lecture] The Rise of China and its Impact on Security in Northeast Asia
[Special Lecture] The Rise of China and its Impact on Security in Northeast Asia
Title: The Rise of China and its Impact on Security in Northeast Asia: Balancing or Bandwagoning?
Speaker: Key-young Son, Humanities Korea Professor at the Asiatic Research Institute
Date: June 5, 2014, 3 p.m.
Venue: Grand Conference Room, Asiatic Research Institute, Korea University
Dr. Key-young Son, Humanities Korea Professor at the Asiatic Research Institute, gave a lecture, titled “The Rise of China and its Impact on Security in Northeast Asia: Balancing or Bandwagoning” for about 20 visiting students from the University of Hong Kong under the guidance of Professor Lee Pui Tak.
Dr. Son started his lecture by first giving an introduction to the economic and military strength of China and the United States, paired with several discussion questions. In light of these developments, he provided three frameworks meant to explain the security behavior of middle powers, namely: balancing, hedging and bandwagoning. Dr. Son utilized these concepts in order to analyze how an alignment between Japan and South Korea could theoretically maximize their security in relation to China and the United States; he did, however, stress that an alliance between them was unlikely as long as they are middle powers.
Dr. Son’s argument focused on the idea that power shifts force great and middle powers to re-group. In response to a decline in US power, South Korea, as a smaller middle power, would likely strengthen its alignment with China perhaps via multilateral institutions. On the other hand, Japan, as a middle power, will need to choose whether to keep its alliance with the US or join regional security institutions. Dr. Son concluded by stating that both norms and power matter in the process of power shifts and formation of new alignments.
2014.06.19
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