By Mason Richey
The autumn begin of the brand new faculty 12 months is at all times a second of reflection for me, because it marks the anniversary of my arrival in South Korea. In 2024 I’m beginning my sixteenth 12 months residing and instructing in Seoul. After I look again at my very own expertise and progress in South Korea, inevitably I additionally take into consideration how the nation has modified since my arrival.
As we’re in a month heavy on diplomatic occasions — Korea International Discussion board, Seoul Protection Dialogue, ReAIM Convention — one in all my ideas has been in regards to the improvement of the diplomatic scene right here. Specifically, I’m fascinated by how significantly better the international diplomatic corps has turn into since I landed in Seoul in 2009. This will appear considerably trivial within the grand scheme of worldwide politics, however the enchancment is each symbolically and substantively necessary, and deserves some reflection.
It is not uncommon to examine South Korea’s progress into an necessary center energy on the again of financial dynamism: excessive schooling ranges, broad industrial energy, superior know-how and cultural tender energy. It is usually frequent to learn in regards to the occasions which have marked South Korea in latest a long time: the World Cup, World Expo, G20 summit, Nuclear Safety Summit, Park Geun-hye’s impeachment, 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, Summit for Democracy, chief summits with the U.S. and Japan, and so on. And naturally South Korea has gained consideration by advantage of its distinction with and countering of North Korea’s malfeasance. Not solely does each North Korean nuclear or missile check draw consideration to the Korean Peninsula, but it surely reminds the remainder of the world that the nation beneath the thirty eighth parallel is peaceable, affluent and democratic.
All of this has had a optimistic impact on the standard of the international diplomatic corps in South Korea. Briefly, South Korea has turn into a way more necessary nation, and the excellence of the international diplomats right here displays that.
After I first arrived in Seoul, the ambassadors posted right here had been largely classifiable into two classes. On the one hand: very skilled, extremely educated, engaged ambassadors from the U.S., Japan, China and Russia. Alternatively: a usually bland hodgepodge of unimpressive ambassadors from different states. This is smart, after all, as South Korea has been a critically necessary state for the US, Japan, China and Russia because the Korean Struggle. The standard of their ambassadors right here has mirrored their main strategic equities on the peninsula. In the meantime, for many different nations, South Korea was not thought-about particularly important, and consequently many ambassadors posted right here from different areas had been midway into retirement, or had been political appointees, or lacked ample affect with their residence ministry or authorities, or had been unenthusiastic about their Seoul posting, or had been merely not amongst their nation’s greatest.
How instances have modified. On common, I meet a couple of ambassadors every week at briefings, conferences, occasions or nationwide day celebrations, and it’s clear that over the past decade the ambassadors from the non-U.S. Americas, Europe, SE Asia, the Center East and Africa have turn into distinctly higher, even wonderful, not less than when it comes to their seen, public-facing actions. Many of those ambassadors now posted listed below are each skilled and nonetheless within the prime of their careers. They know their briefing books completely. They’re lively, inquisitive and insightful. They’re proactively constructing, sustaining and increasing relations between their nations and South Korea. They reward South Korea effusively when warranted, and arise forcefully for his or her nation’s pursuits and values when needed. For a significant proportion of ambassadors posted to South Korea over the past decade, their ambassadorship was a second posting to South Korea, following an ancient times as a political or financial counselor. This expertise issues. A lot of ambassadors posted in Seoul converse Korean.
Maybe most significantly, they wish to be in South Korea as a result of it’s now a major project due its financial, political and cultural energy. South Korea’s standing as a fascinating posting additionally impacts the standard of the corps of lower-ranked diplomats, who’ve additionally turn into significantly better over the past decade. South Korea’s attractiveness to top-flight youthful diplomats signifies that it will likely be properly positioned to see them return in higher-ranking positions sooner or later.
Symbolically, the advance within the international diplomatic corps in Seoul issues as a result of it’s an indicator of the event of South Korea’s international affect. However there’s a substantive dimension additionally. Higher diplomats right here means higher relations between South Korea and the remainder of the world, which ought to produce outcomes that profit South Korea and make it stronger, thus attracting higher diplomats. This can be a virtuous circle with a optimistic affect for all involved.
Mason Richey is a professor of worldwide politics at Hankuk College of Overseas Research, president of the Korea Worldwide Research Affiliation, and editor-in-chief of the Journal of East Asian Affairs.
