Shaping Alliances with Ideology: Unraveling the U.S.-South Korea Dynamics

• In Event: Security Dynamics in East Asia

Abstract

How do the actions of partner nations change in an asymmetric alliance? This study presents a political ideology-based model based on Glenn Snyder's theory of the alliance security dilemma. It posits that the political ideologies of ruling parties in allied countries significantly influence their behaviors within the alliance, thereby impacting the alliance security dilemma. The paper examines the U.S.-Korea alliance as a case study, illustrating how differing political ideologies of ruling parties in the U.S. and Korea, positioned along the left-right spectrum, lead to varied strategic choices in alliance matters. These choices, in turn, affect the dynamics of the alliance security dilemma. The study emphasizes the critical role of political ideology of ruling powers, a factor often overlooked in alliance security dilemma theoryIt argues that understanding these political ideologies is essential for systematically explaining and predicting shifts in asymmetric alliances.

Author

• Seok Joon Kim, Kyungpook National University