오바마 행정부의 출범과 미국의 대 한반도 안보정책 함의

Abstract

Making of US foreign policy is expected to undergo no small amount of change as new Democratic President, Barack Obama has taken the office. US foreign policy will take a turn for a more Liberal Internationalist approach under the Democratic Obama administration, and Obama’s policy toward Asia and Korean peninsula will proceed under the broad framework of Liberal Internationalist foreign policy tradition of the Democratic Party. During the Bush administration Asia did not receive a fair share of attention from the US, because the US had been largely preoccupied with Iraq. It is expected that strategic importance of Asia to the US will loom larger under the Obama administration. President Obama will attempt to maintain peace and order in Asia by preserving and strengthening traditional alliances and partnerships. Additionally, his administration will strive to adjust to new regional trends towards multilateralism. Obama’s inauguration is unlikely to change basic tenets of Korea-US alliance. The decision to strengthen and upgrade the alliance partnership had been arrived at by previous administrations in both countries after lengthy discussion for a long period of time. Obama administration is not in a position to ignore this consensus without any apparent reasons. Obama acknowledges that Korea-US alliance has been a remarkably strong and successful one and that ties that bind the two countries proved to be very resilient. In the spirit of upgrading Korea-US alliance from defense-based one to a more value-based, future oriented one, the new administration in the US will ask Korea to expand alliance responsibility and join in efforts to counter terrorism in Afghanistan. It is speculated that Obama might adopt a more diplomatic and friendlier approach to North Korea and problems associated with North Korea. But if Obama thinks that diplomatic options are exhausted and North Korea does not reciprocate American goodwill and refuses verifiable dismantlement of nuclear weapons, it should not come as a surprise to see Obama’s policy toward North Korea revert to that of early George W Bush.