How Biden Can Get Korean Policy Right
There are several tools and policy options at America’s disposal when it comes to working with South Korea and dealing with North Korea.
Editor’s note: this article is an adaptation from a policy paper written by Joshua Nezam who recently served as the national security fellow in the office of Senator Cory Gardner. This paper was originally published in the Pacific Forum and is reprinted with their permission.
The next presidential administration and Congress must think creatively about the tools at their disposal to repurpose alliances and influence international agreements – both to signal support for longstanding interests and inject fresh thinking about how to achieve common goals in an evolving regional landscape. The United States-Republic of Korea (U.S.-ROK) alliance is evidence of decades of successful policy, yet its agenda is not fit for the current era. Deterring North Korea will remain a focus of the alliance, but prioritizing denuclearization must no longer monopolize the alliance’s political capital nor paralyze its global potential. The United States and South Korea must broaden alliance initiatives to rediscover relevance in an era of multidimensional structural competition with China. This requires the Seoul and Washington to clarify how shared values translate into policy convergence in security, economy, and technology domains.