[Pacific Focus] 2012-12-07

Leif-Eric Easley, “Middle Power National Identity?: South Korea and Vietnam in U.S.-China Geopolitics,” Pacific Focus, Vol. 27, No. 3, December 2012, pp. 421-442.

The middle powers literature often conflates role identity (national self-conception) of middle power states with role performance (foreign policies), while neglecting East Asia as a region of hypothesis generation and testing. This article contributes to the middle powers literature by comparing the post-Cold War national identities and foreign policies of South Korea and Vietnam. The article examines how identity trajectories relate to change in South Korea and Vietnam’s geopolitical positioning between the United States and China, and assesses the prospects for middle power cooperation in East Asia.