THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SOUTH KOREA’S MIDDLE POWER DIPLOMACY IN MAINTAINING THE STATUS OF MIDDLE POWER UNDER PARK GEUN-HYE ADMINISTRATION (2013 – 2017)

Abstract

The middle power diplomacy brought by President Park Geun-hye as one of her foreign policy pillars has emphasized on South Korea’s desire in being a responsible middle power for the peace and development on global level. Together with the pillar and its objective goal of middle power diplomacy, the South Korean government had created several initiatives in hope to show the country’s contribution as a middle power. One of the initiatives was MIKTA. MIKTA is an informal group consist of middle power countries such as Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey and Australia. As a network of middle power countries that contain middle power characteristics, MIKTA had visions to engage in multilateral cooperation and bridge developed and developing countries to promote global governance, assist the world’s development also facilitate peaceful resolution of international disputes. The creation of MIKTA was becoming the first South Korea’s diplomatic engagement in a form of coalition-building and potential to become an instrument of South Korea’s middle power diplomacy on regional and global level, as well as elevate South Korea’s international presence as a proactive middle power. This qualitative research will analyze the implementation of South Korea’s middle power diplomacy in reaching its foreign policy goals through the South Korea-led coalition group, MIKTA under Park Geun-hye administration within the period of 2013 to 2017. The writer hope to gain the knowledge on South Korea’s implementation of middle power diplomacy through MIKTA and the country’s leadership in between member countries.