Comparative Regionalism in New Eurasia

Comparative Regionalism in New Eurasia: Trilateral Perspectives for ROK’s New Northern Policy

The aim of this project is to study South Korea’s New Northern Policy in the context of the challenges and opportunities given by China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the US’ Indo-Pacific Strategy, and to develop a Eurasian strategy, which through revitalization of minilateralism can contribute to the efforts of establishing a peace system on the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia. In a situation where the competition for hegemony between the US and China is intensifying and cooperation between Russia and North Korea is uncertain, how South Korea can secure an initiative for cooperation in Eurasia is an important question to answer. Therefore, this study invokes the approach of Calder (2019) who understands Europe and Asia as one “supercontinent” rather than setting the geographical concept of Eurasia as Russia and Central Asia. Against this backdrop, this study examines the structure of Eurasian regionalism and the minilateralism that takes place within this context from the perspectives of global, European, and Northeast Asian countries. The project team is led by Prof. Jae-Seung Lee (Korea University, Seoul), and consists of collaborative researchers based in South Korea, Europe and Northern America.