Is it possible to think of a Korean school of international relations? an American reflection on Korean internationalist thought and its intellectuality

Abstract

In the Asia Pacific region, where the reception, appropriation, and criticism of Western thought is expressed in contrast to one's thought, the problem of identifying intellectual agents in the field of international studies and their ideas, understood as theoretical and conceptual contributions to understanding what is being thought in this specific geoeidetic space is established. This paper seeks to account for the production of ideas in this field and their voices in Korea, understood as a periphery/part of the global south concerning the center/mainstream of international studies, and to think the place of the country in the international system, through the identification of the critical axes in this thought. The article aims to problematize and challenge the premise that the recent pursuit of the Korean internationalist intellectuals that aims to form an independent and self-sufficient Korean school or theory of international relations, with universal applicability, still operates under a colonial and dependent mindset, treating Korea as a testing ground for mainstream rationalist approaches and theories of international relations.