Rise of the Rest: It takes Two Tier-Twos to Tango

• 발행기관: 한국공공가치학회
• 저자명: Brendan M. Howe
• 간행물 정보: 『Journal of Public Value』Vol. 9, 1~9쪽, 전체 9쪽
• 주제분류: 사회과학 > 사회복지학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2025.06.30

국문 초록

Purpose: This article explores the potential of practical cooperative policy initiatives aimed at promoting public values in an anarchic international operating environment challenged by the return of geopolitics. The focus is on two second-tier powers which individually share similar geopolitical constraints and challenges in their respective operating environments but also have significant resources and incentives to develop public value generating platforms independently, and in collaboration with like-minded partners. South Korea has variously been described as a shrimp among whales or stuck between a rock and a hard place in terms of its relationships with great powers. The United Kingdom is a former great (even hegemonic) power which has faced the challenge of first “losing an empire and finding a role” and second, Brexiting from the larger geopolitical bloc, the European Union. The analysis is situated within the “rise of the rest” discourse, which has evolved to consider what secondary actors can and should do in the face of great power contestation, hegemonic decline, and abdication of global leadership. This article, therefore, asks and attempts to answer the central question regarding how can public values be promoted by these two diverse second-tier powers through non-traditional security (NTS) and development cooperation in the face of geopolitical challenges? Method: This research project used a qualitative approach consisting of literature review and document analysis. The results of this study should be supplemented by quantitative and qualitative studies in the future. The literature review consists of a comprehensive assessment of scholarly academic publications from competing perspectives in the fields of political and moral philosophy, public administration, and international relations. The document survey is mainly related to the policy documentation output of national governments and international organizations, as well as media reports. The review will first address the capabilities of the two actors that allow them to be identified as second-tier powers. It will then move on to analysis of shared interests and nascent areas of cooperation, as well as the potential for practical cooperative policy initiatives in the form of second-tier actor-led minilaterals. Results: The research identifies how new geopolitical challenges to the second-tier powers of South Korea, and the United Kingdom limit their strategic autonomy in their respective operating environments. It further highlights how arenas of multilateral cooperation have also been hamstrung by competition between, and lack of leadership from the great powers, and thus have proven unsuitable for advancing the public value aspirations and interests of the two second-tier actors. Nevertheless, this research identifies areas of shared interest and nascent cooperation between the ROK and UK, which are potentially well suited to minilateral institutionalization, albeit in a hitherto unexplored form substituting second-tier actor leadership for that traditionally supplied by one of the great powers. Conclusion: Public values are generated at the international level, in the absence of global government, through the processes of international cooperation and organization. In a time of increased great power contestation, however, multilateral institutions and initiatives from actors with less than great power resources are severely constrained. Major advocates of collective public values at the international level, herein identified as secondary powers, need, therefore, to imagine other avenues for cooperation and organization. This research advocates that these like-minded actors step up their bilateral collaboration to form minilateral institutions to promote NTS and development issues of common concern.

목차

1. Introduction

2. The rise of the rest – alternative actors

3. Selected Second-Tier Powers

4. Conclusion

5. References

키워드

international organization multilateralism minilateralism second-tier powers Non-Traditional Security (NTS)