South Korea at the Crossroads: Autonomy and Alliance in an Era of Rival Powers

This solid introduction to the history of South Korea’s foreign policy from Snyder (Middle-Power Korea), a senior fellow for Korean studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, has already been preempted by a rapidly developing situation. In the epilogue, Snyder addresses the implications of President Trump’s isolationist leanings for a longtime U.S. ally, writing that “in the hours following [his election], the South Korean government called an emergency national security meeting.” However, this issue has already been overshadowed by North Korea’s missile launches throughout 2017, a development that makes the topic of the book’s concluding section—the feasibility of Korean unification—less likely than ever given the current state of affairs on the peninsula. However, Snyder is adept at describing the ups and downs in South Korea’s relationships with the U.S. and China, which illustrate his insightful thesis that there exists a “conflict between South Korea’s aspirations for autonomy and its need for alliance.” His observations aren’t always so useful—even nonexperts can grasp, as Snyder explains, that the success of South Korea’s foreign policy depends largely on its internal unity. Academics and news junkies will value Snyder’s book more as a source of background than as a work of analysis. (Jan. 2018)