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Elite opinion and the 'Belt and Road' debate in South Korea
This article analyses elite opinion in South Korea about China's 'One Belt, One Road' (OBOR) in order to better understand how this Asia–Pacific middle power and US ally is approaching the initiative. Through a close analysis of the writing of foreign-policy elites, the article finds that OBOR was generally depicted as significant to China's re-emergence in regional and global affairs, but not as wholly detrimental to South Korean interests. Elites did not speak with one voice, but presented the government with a comparatively sanguine view of OBOR. The debate, we illustrate, created unlikely alliances between left- and right-leaning elites about some aspects of the initiative, but it also revealed tensions among conservative and centrist elites. In seeking to demonstrate their relevance to policymakers, however, elites inadvertently underlined their growing distance from the general public.
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Pacific affairsVolume
92Issue
1Season
MarchPagination
27 - 48Publisher
University of British ColumbiaLocation
Vancouver, CanadaPublisher DOI
ISSN
0030-851XLanguage
engPublication classification
C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2019, University of British ColumbiaUsage metrics
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