Asymmetric Fear and its Effects on the Alliance :Comparative Studies Between the Perceptions of Koreans and Americans

Abstract

The author tries to find an asymmetry of perception regarding threats and alliance robustness, especially a non-linear relationship between how people perceive threat and alliance coherence in the small state, with a linear one in the strong state, in an asymmetric alliance. In an effort to find a possible explanation for this question, this project hypothesizes an inverted U-Shaped relationship between threat level and alliance coherence, and tests it through survey data, offering a framework to explain the decoupling phenomena caused by asymmetric fear. The results of a statistical model supports the hypothesis and the author argues that there is a decoupling concern about the ROK-US alliance in South Korean people''s perception, while there is no observable trend in the perceptions of people in the U.S. The inverted U-shape relationship between threat and alliance coherence of people''s perception can be accounted for in explaining NK behaviors more comprehensively.