[Feature] The “Trump Doctrine” and the Korean Peninsula: Crises and Opportunities in the Midst of Neorealism and Neomercantilism / Suh Jae-jung
The Quarterly Changbi 181, Autumn 2018
Abstract
This article is an attempt to understand the origin of US President Trump’s forward-looking approach to the Korean issue and its possible influences on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and the security regime in Northeast Asia. The author approaches it from the framework of the US national security strategy. He believes that despite the US mainstream media’s caricature of the president himself, Trump’s national security strategy is more consistent than confused. It is a strategy that combines two traditional postwar US policies: realistic internationalism and neomercantilism. According to Suh, this strategy offers both opportunity and crisis to the Korean peninsula. He convincingly argues that how we understand and respond to these two different aspects of the US strategy will be crucial to the establishment of a peaceful system on the Korean peninsula.