뉴스레터

"Alas, the Korean people should put an end to their tendency to rely on others and try to benefit from them. Do not rely on China, or you will be nothing but their slaves or servants. Do not rely on Japan, or they will eventually take away your intestines. Do not rely on Russia, or they will eventually eat your body whole. Do not rely on Britain and America, or you will become enemies of China, Japan, and Russia. While avoiding relying on all these countries, make sure that you stay close to them."(The Independent, January 20, 1898)

It is beyond question that the power relationship among the U.S., Japan, China, and Russia in the Northeast Asian region is closely connected with the destiny of the Korean Peninsula. But Northeast Asia has never been as troubled as it is today since the end of World War II, with growing conflicts in the international political arena among the countries within the region. In this region today, the U.S., China, and Russia look as though they are in a new race for supremacy, and the relationship between China and Russia has never been more intimate as the friction between China and Japan has escalated into a trouble between the U.S. and China.

The Persistent U.S. Policy of Besieging China

When U.S. President Barack Obama was in Japan in late April this year during his tour of Asian countries, including Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and the Philippines, he affirmed in public, for the first time as U.S. President, Article 5 of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, a provision requiring the automatic military intervention of the U.S. should Japan be under security threat, and overtly acknowledged Japan's effective control over the Senkaku/Daiaoyu Islands, highly disputed islands between Japan and China. China has responded to such move of the U.S. by rapidly increasing its naval power in the East China Sea and the South China Sea and unilaterally declaring an air defence identification zone (ADIZ). At the same time, Chinese President Xi Jinping has shown off his intimate relationship with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, who has been strongly pushing ahead with the strategy of Eurasianism lately in the international stage, using the China-Russia alliance to form a common front against the U.S. and Japan.

Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pushing ahead with the right to collective self-defense in the name of "active pacifism," provoking Korea and China and causing apprehension across the Northeast Asian region. Especially since the end of last November, when China unilaterally declared the ADIZ, Japan has taken very sensitive military measures with tacit support from the U.S., deploying forces in battleships, reconnaissance aircraft, and large patrol boats in the waters adjacent to both China and Japan. Japan has also changed the Japanese Defense Agency into the Ministry of Defense, elevating its status to a cabinet-level ministry, and actively pushed forward with the right to collective self-defense, in an effort to pave the way for its rearmament.

While the Korean Peninsula, or South Korea, is mired in this ongoing conflict among the countries in the Northeast Asian region, North Korea is threatening to conduct its fourth nuclear test and Japan is seeking a strange escape through cooperation and dialogue with North Korea. Dr. Bernhard Seliger of the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Germany has reported after his recent visit to North Korea that with Russia and China scrambling to invest in the special economic zones in Najin and Seonbong, this region is showing major signs of economic development and change. But this race between China and Russia investing in North Korea is also an indicator of a subtle change in the power relationship among North Korea, China, and Russia.

Against this turbulent backdrop, what about the situation facing us in Korea? With the clash between the U.S.-Japan and the China-Russia alliances, and the conflict between the G2 of the U.S. and China, Korea finds itself in a trouble, and the challenge at hand is to swim through these troubled waters. And this challenge is directly linked to the Eurasia Initiative, the key foreign policy of the Park Geun-hye administration.

Understanding Russia's 'Eurasianism' Is Essential

'Eurasianism' is debated constantly, not only in Korea but around the world. Historically, the origin of Eurasianism is Russia. And it is also Russian President Vladimir Putin who rekindled Eurasianism in the international political arena today.

Originally, Eurasianism is an ideological or philosophical movement initiated in the early 1920s by Н. С. Трубецкой and other Russian intellectuals in exile in protest of the arrogance of the European civilization. Eurasianism withered away under the Bolshevik regime during the Soviet period, but was gradually resurrected as a strong political ideology once the Soviet Union collapsed. In the post-Soviet space, the politicians and geopoliticians of Russia are actively arguing and debating it as if this is a messianic mission of redeeming the future of Russia in politics, economy, society, culture, and every other area.

In the context described above, the Eurasian Union (EAU), the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and the New Eastern Policy (NEP) driven by Russian President Vladimir Putin can be said to be all part of Russia's global policy based on Eurasianism. Therefore, understanding this global strategy of Russia properly is essential to the effective implementation of the Eurasia Initiative policy of the Park Geun-hye administration.

The Eurasia Initiative has the main goal of making Eurasia 'a single continent, 'a continent of creativity,' and 'a continent of peace' and one of its key action plans is to construct the Silk Road Express (SRX) connecting Busan to North Korea, Russia, China, and all the way to Central Asia and Europe. For the success of this policy, it is obviously important to understand Russia's Eurasianism. Therefore, I urge the Northeast Asian History Foundation to study Russia with more interest, although not as much as China or Japan.