Australia, Korea and the entangled language of common strategic interests

ABSTRACT

During the South Korean president’s state visit to Australia in December 2021, the Australian Government and in turn the Australian media sustained a narrative that the two countries held ‘common strategic interests’. Over the past ten years, the notion of common strategic interests became a ‘naturalized narrative’ in Australia – a narrative, which through entrenched repetition becomes both natural and inevitable to such an extent that counter-narratives are seen as counterintuitive and open to ridicule.

This study investigates the common strategic interests narrative. It first explores the bilateral relationship and the narrative gap that occurred during the president’s visit. It then turns to the use of language and narrative in bilateral relationships. It looks at how the constituent components supporting the common strategic interests narrative are contextualized and how this impacts the political action of Australia and Korea.

The study finds that the common strategic interests narrative does not cross the linguistic-cultural divide in the Australia-Korea bilateral relationship. The article concludes with policy recommendations. Australia needs to pay more attention to building policy relevance and education links in South Korea.

KEYWORDS:

• Australia
• Korea
• South Korea
• language
• narrative
• strategy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Korea Foundation: [Grant Number Korea - Australia Relations Project].

Notes on contributors

Jeffrey Robertson

Jeffrey Robertson is an Associate Professor of Diplomatic Studies at Yonsei University and Visiting Fellow at the Asia Institute, University of Melbourne. Before moving to academia, he worked for the Australian Government in the field of diplomacy, foreign policy and North Asia. His current research interests include the diplomatic practice and foreign policy of middle powers. He writes and updates research at https://junotane.com and on Twitter @junotane.