This book examines South Korea's recent strategic turn to middle power diplomacy, evaluating its performance so far in key areas of security, maritime governance, trade, finance, development assistance, climate change, and cyber space. In particular, the authors pay special attention to how South Korea's middle power diplomacy can contribute to making the U.S.-China competition in East Asia benefit Korea. The contributors discuss the opportunities and limits of this middle power diplomacy role, exploring how Korea can serve as a middleman in Sino-Japanese relations, rather than as a US ally against China; use its rich trade networks to negotiate beneficial free trade agreements; and embracing its role as a leader in climate change policy, along with other topics. This book is a must read for foreign policy officials and experts who engage in the Asia-Pacific region, rekindling the academic study of middle powers whose influence is only augmenting in our increasingly networked twenty-first century world.

Populism is a contested concept when applied to Asia. In Populism in Asian Democracies: Features, Structures and Impacts, members of the Asia Democracy Research Network (ADRN) discuss the diverse subtypes of populism in 11 countries across Asia, their structural elements and societal impacts. Populism takes on different forms in Asia according to its target, rhetoric and strategy. Redistributive populism stems from income inequality and rural poverty while ethno-religious populism represents a continued struggle between majority and minority groups. Progressive populism emphasizes democratic governance over corruption and factional politics, and authoritarian populism rises from government incompetence. As ADRN shows, the 11 Asian democracies have adopted various subtypes-and hybrids-of such populism models, adding importance to regional cooperation in safeguarding democracy.