Linkages Between Domestic and Foreign Policies Under Gorbachev: The Case of Korea

Choi, Tai Kang (1993) Linkages Between Domestic and Foreign Policies Under Gorbachev: The Case of Korea. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

A shrinking world is a knot of intertwined political, economic, ethnic, national, military, and environmental problems. Foreign and domestic matters have become inextricably linked in contemporary international relations. Nations are becoming increasingly interdependent in a highly developed industrialized society. In this process we may find a key to unlocking the riddle about how domestic and foreign policy stimuli interact in an environment characterized as 'cascading interdependence'. In this thesis, I have attempted to highlight the internal and external factors which were very interactive under Gorbachev. Domestic policy within the Soviet Union had a profound impact on the nature of its foreign policy and, similarly, the impact of the latter determined significant aspects of domestic policy-making. The thesis concludes with an overall assessment of the linkage between perestroika and new political thinking. Are there any particular features of the link between Domestic and foreign policies under Gorbachev toward the Korean peninsula? There are some elements: international environment, the changes of Soviet domestic politics, the economic factor, political leadership, timing, and Seoul's northern policy. In the case of Korea, therefore, we can not say domestic factors had an important role or external factors an unimportant role. Rather, a dynamic of internal-external interaction went on under the situation of a reduction in cold-war hostilities and increasing accommodation between the superpowers in the late 1980s. Hence one has to construct a model of linkages between domestic and foreign policies under Gorbachev, if one is to understand why particular policies were chosen at a particular time. In sum, although domestic factors played an important role, it is my position that neither domestic nor external factors alone best explain Gorbachev's policy but, rather, the complex interplay of international politics on domestic politics and vice versa, within the context of increasing global interdependence.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Additional Information: Adviser: Stephen White
• Keywords: International relations, Political science, Russian history
• Date of Award: 1993
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1993-75680
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 19 Nov 2019 18:57
• Last Modified: 19 Nov 2019 18:57
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/75680