The major purpose of this study is to explain the role of epistemic community in conducting a new diplomacy for the Korean unification as well as the peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia in the information age. This study is based on three premises ...
The major purpose of this study is to explain the role of epistemic community in conducting a new diplomacy for the Korean unification as well as the peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia in the information age. This study is based on three premises for the necessity of introducing a new diplomacy under the rapidly changing international and Northeast Asian situations: 1) The new international environments strongly suggest that we need a new approach to promoting the Korean unification; 2) It is necessary to develop a network of transnational experts across national borders for solving problems related to the Korean unification and promoting peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia in the highly globalized world; 3) The peaceful unification of the Korean peninsula could not be achieved without consolidating the peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia.
In a way to demonstrate the necessity of a new diplomacy for the Korean unification, this study made a critical review on the ROK government's unification diplomacy from historical perspective. The government's current unification diplomacy which has been focused on only the state-to-state relationship doesn't reflect some significant changes in the international society. Since the rapid developments of globalization and information technology have been changing the international environments, the actors, contents, counterparts of diplomacy have been changed and diversified, even though states or governments still play the predominant role, functioning as the most important official channels for the Korean unification. Therefore, we need to develop epistemic community as a new actor of unification diplomacy.
An epistemic community is a transnational network of top experts who are working in the academia, mass media, NGOs, as well as central and local governments with extensive knowledge and strong influence on the policy-making process in their related fields. It must be emphasized that Northeast Asia Epistemic Community would share the vision of the Korean unification as well as peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia, find out new agenda, make some joint efforts to seek some solutions, and finally draw national and international society's attentions for domestic and regional cooperation. The epistemic community's ultimate goal is to institutionalize the mechanism of the peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia including the Korean peninsula.
As a new actor of unification diplomacy in the information age, ‘Northeast Asia Epistemic Community’ is effectively going to play a role at the international, domestic, and inter-Korean levels. At the international level, Northeast Asia Epistemic Community would serve as a channel for the ROK government's unification diplomacy and promoting peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia by making neighboring states understand the unification benefits and contributing to build the regional identity of Northeast Asian states. At the domestic level, the epistemic community would form and lead public opinions in favor of consolidating the South Korean people's strong will toward Korean unification as well as offer some policy advices for the government decision-makers. Furthermore, the members of Northeast Asia Epistemic Community at the inter-Korean level will share the vision of peaceful unification, and establish a high level of trust between the actors who are involved in and implement the process of gradual unification in the future.
In a way to examine the possibility of developing ‘Northeast Asia Epistemic
Community’, this study analyzed the role of epistemic community in the process of European integration and the unification of Germany. The successful case of German unification strongly implies that the epistemic community in Europe greatly contributed to the German unification, although the inter-German epistemic community was yet to develop in the process of the German unification, which brought out some negative consequences in the post-Unification German. Therefore, it is necessary to seek the Korean unification in the context of promoting peace and cooperation in Northeast Asia, in which epistemic community would certainly play an important role.
When we analyzed and evaluated the current situation of the Northeast Asia Epistemic Community, most of the cases are just platforms for the simple dialogue across countries in this region without any significant influence on the national and regional policy making. Nevertheless, we can find some facilitating factors to develop the epistemic community in the future. For example, Track 2 or Track 1.5 diplomacy conducted by government and non-government experts are recently becoming more and more activated. Compared to the past, the number of collaborative research and international conference has been increasing, and the field of cooperation has been diversified as well. Meanwhile, there are some obstacles, such as Epistemic Community’s weak political influence at the domestic level, lack of continuity and effectiveness of organizing international conferences and joint projects across countries in the region, as well as exerting political influence at the regional level. In addition, it is yet to build up a network of experts in North Korea who share the vision of peaceful unification of the Korean peninsula as well as peace and cooperation in this region with the mind of openness and reforms.