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Subject
The impact of populist politics on South Korean foreign policy.
Significance
The major foreign policy initiatives of Park Geun-hye's administration have failed to achieve headway and are unlikely to. Structural weaknesses make foreign policy reactive and short-term, inhibit consideration of longer-term strategies and make leaders more susceptible to populism.
Impacts
Seoul has the technical capability to acquire nuclear weapons; the barriers are political.
Discussion of nuclear armament by an erstwhile champion of non-proliferation will weaken the global non-proliferation regime.
Washington already faces an alliance management challenge in the Philippines; populism in South Korea could create another.
Keywords:
South Korea,
AP,
East Asia,
China,
Japan,
North Korea,
international relations,
foreign policy,
nuclear weapons,
security
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2016
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