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ABSTRACT
This paper explores the middle power identities of Australia and South Korea during the Kevin Rudd/Julia Gillard (2007–2013) and Lee Myung-bak (2008–2013) administrations. Considering the problems in the existing position, behaviour, impact and identity-based definitions of middle powers, examining how self-identified middle powers have constructed such an identity would offer useful insights into the middle power concept. Relying on a framework that captures an identity's content and contestation, this paper argues that while Australia and South Korea have assumed a middle power identity, their visualisations of this identity are slightly different. Australia has understood its middle power identity in both economic and security terms, whereas South Korea appears to have connected such an identity more with the economic dimension. These differences affect how they envision their respective middle power roles in international affairs.
Acknowledgments
The author is grateful to the journals' anonymous reviewers and Dr Young Joon Kim (Institute for National Security Strategy, Republic of Korea), for their comments on an earlier draft of the paper.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Sarah Teo
Sarah Teo is an associate research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and a PhD candidate at the Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney, Australia. Her research interests include middle powers in the Asia Pacific, the foreign policies of South Korea and Australia, as well as multilateral security and defence cooperation in ASEAN and the Asia Pacific.