한‧아프리카 포럼의 의미와 이명박 정부의 대아프리카 정책에 대한 소고

Abstract

The foreign relations in the current international society is putting the authentic mutual dependence and understanding between the nations above others unlike the cold war system, so such circumstances require the medium & long term approach that could reinforce Soft Power in various fields. Such an approach is an advisable means in that it can actualize the international realism aiming for national interest with more appropriateness and also actualize the international idealism more reinforcing the approach to world peace and international issues at the same time. Especially the diplomatic strategy toward Africa employed by the countries in the West is changing into the strategy putting emphasis on Soft Power by linking the practicality of the so-called resource diplomacy and market expansion to sustainable economic development. With the coming of the 21st century, a nation's diplomacy is confronted with endless changes and challenges due to a countless number of mutually influencing complex factors, and moreover, a nation is facing the situation where it cannot seek for only practical interests any more owing to the emergence and roles of diverse international performers. Especially in case of Korea, the capacity reinforcement of Soft Power is an imperative strategy in the medium & long term not only for the resource diplomacy toward Africa but also building peace in the Korean Peninsula. Further, it's necessary to give a top priority to capacity reinforcement through the development of Soft Power uniquely applicable to Africa in case of Korea which is acquainted with the western culture in that Africa still has a cultural pattern different from the West. Accordingly, as a responsible stakeholder in international society, as a late-starting nation whose launching into Africa is late, and ,as someone argues, as a model of African economic development, Korea in the 21st century is required to reestablish the basic guideline for the policy toward Africa through the more comprehensive and consultative method led by the private-public-academic sectors, and to put forth the Korean paradigm of Soft Power to debate from the medium & long-range view. On its basis, there need to be the expansion of cultural exchange, and ‘intelligence gathering the strength’ of domestic resources that could expand the base of cultural exchange more than anything else.