South Korea’s alignment shift under the competition between coalitional hegemonies: elite ideology, legitimation, and role conception

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ABSTRACT This article explores how the legitimation efforts of the American and Chinese coalitional hegemonies have resonated within the ruling political elites in South Korea and shaped the role conceptions of Seoul. Those role conceptions have further shaped the contours of South Korea's strategic alignment as it strives to achieve strategic interests, especially with respect to North Korea. To demonstrate this argument, this article focuses on South Korea's contrasting responses to the competition between these coalitional hegemonies, with particular attention to the approaches of the progressive Moon Jae-in administration and the current conservative Yoon Suk Yeol administration. While the Moon administration sought to balance the two coalitional hegemonies, the Yoon administration has embraced a facilitative role in support of the United States (US)-led coalitional hegemony and has strengthened ties with like-minded democratic partners, thereby constituting the supporting constituency of the US-led coalitional hegemony in the Indo-Pacific region. While the Moon administration’s role as a balancer attempted to accommodate China as a means of engaging North Korea, the Yoon administration has sought to strengthen collective deterrence under the US-led coalitional hegemony against the North to respond to its nuclear threat.