Copyright © 2009 by Chester B Cabalza
Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Philippines-South Korea Relations in November 2009, the author will be posting his abstract paper on "Korea's Soft Power Diplomacy and the Impacts of Korean Wave in Asia." Full text of the paper will be published separately in this blog.
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ABSTRACT
The bleak picture of Korea marked by the twin-after effects of the Japanese occupation and the Korean War has placed South Korea as one of Asia’s sick man after wartime. The reality that Korea remains the sole nation today divided as the victim of the Cold War. However, there stays a strong brotherhood between South and North Koreans. Despite initial economic handicaps and political woes, however, [South] Korea eventually achieved economic growth and began to rise as one of the formidable tiger economies in Asia. But before the turn of the 21st century, Koreans captured the hearts, minds and souls of East Asians through the rise of hanryu/hallyu or the Korean Wave. Korea’s popular culture has also presented an important cultural freedom in which individuals are allowed to talk about conflicts between generations, nationalism, globalism and gender issues. Now, Asians have a genuine cultural exchange vehicle introduced by hanryu. And Asians who have long been immersed in the Western popular culture have found alternatives. This paper addresses the argument that Korea’s Soft Power Diplomacy through the Korean Wave has positively paved a way to the looming relations of South Korea in particular to its Northeast Asian neighbors, especially in the fields of popular culture, albeit there are still many obstacles to prevent distrust and enmity, thus also improving relations in other areas like in defense, politics and economics. In the process, it is recommended that [South] Korean government puts more effort into understanding these hindrances to achieve leverage and favorable outcome and a more positive image away from the remnants of security disorders in the peninsula, and emerge as a new economic force and catalyst supported by two of its gigantic economic neighbors. Only by understanding the obstacles and sustaining the success of the Korean Wave should [South] Korea attain the effectiveness it has set for Soft Power Diplomacy.
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