Introduction: Managing Risk in an Unstable Environment The contemporary international environment is characterized by the simultaneous coexistence of strategic calculation and impulsive, risk-acceptant behavior, generating heightened uncertainty across the global system. South Korea has not been immune to these dynamics,
Introduction: A Shifting Security Landscape Since 2022, the international security environment has undergone a structural transformation. The war in Ukraine revealed the depth of interdependence between European and Indo-Pacific security dynamics, accelerating a shift in how major multilateral institutions define
Introduction: From Contractor to Architect Central Asia’s contemporary geopolitical architecture is evolving beyond its historical characterization as merely an arena for great-power rivalry. While the systemic influences of China’s infrastructure-heavy Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Russia’s traditional security presence
Introduction: From Contractor to Architect When the Kaesong Industrial Complex was shut down in February 2016, it was widely described as a failure. Commentators spoke of naïveté, of a misguided “Sunshine Policy,” of South Korean idealism exploited by a ruthless