The middle-power moment may well have been an illusion, but middle powers will continue to play an important albeit different role in international relations.
Over the past year, long-suppressed strategic debates re-emerged in South Korea: accepting a less-involved United States, strengthening relations with China, securing an independent nuclear weapons capacity, or combining all of these and steering a path towards a unified Korea that could sustain some form of armed neutrality.
With declining birth rates; an ever-present, albeit momentarily reduced North Korean threat; and smoldering social dissatisfaction regarding its management; mandatory military service will remain a simmering social and political issue for South Korea.
South Korea’s position at the intersection of US and North Korean intentions and capabilities stirs substantial domestic debate and the use of analogies to frame different policy approaches is a perennial feature of debates.
