Korea Journal
- P-ISSN0023-3900
- E-ISSN2733-9343
- A&HCI, SCOPUS, KCI
A War for the Coming Multipolar World?: How Anti-Hegemonism Sometimes Evolves into a Pro-Putin Stance among the South Korean Left
A War for the Coming Multipolar World?: How Anti-Hegemonism Sometimes Evolves into a Pro-Putin Stance among the South Korean Left
- vladimir.tikhonov@ikos.uio.no
초록
The present article focuses on the logic used by leftists in South Korea for exculpating Putin for his full-scale invasion of Ukraine (February 2022 to the present). An essential point of this logic is the (mis)identification of Putin’s regime as a supposedly anti-imperialist heir to the Soviet Union. Suggested by Putinist propaganda, this (mis)identification is concomitantly strengthened by a long tradition of idealizing the Soviet Union and its policies among the South Korean Left. With Putin’s Russia replacing the Soviet Union on their mental maps, some representatives of South Korea’s nationalist Left view Putin as an ally. On the practical plane, they hope that the supposed Putinist opposition to American hegemony will weaken the latter and thus give South Korea more elbowroom in its relationship with the USA. On a more general level, a salient feature of pro-Putinism in Korea is the (mis)identification of the multipolar world Russia putatively fights for, with a democratization of international relations.
- keywords
- Ukraine, Russia, South Korea, Left, nationalism
Abstract
The present article focuses on the logic used by leftists in South Korea for exculpating Putin for his full-scale invasion of Ukraine (February 2022 to the present). An essential point of this logic is the (mis)identification of Putin’s regime as a supposedly anti-imperialist heir to the Soviet Union. Suggested by Putinist propaganda, this (mis)identification is concomitantly strengthened by a long tradition of idealizing the Soviet Union and its policies among the South Korean Left. With Putin’s Russia replacing the Soviet Union on their mental maps, some representatives of South Korea’s nationalist Left view Putin as an ally. On the practical plane, they hope that the supposed Putinist opposition to American hegemony will weaken the latter and thus give South Korea more elbowroom in its relationship with the USA. On a more general level, a salient feature of pro-Putinism in Korea is the (mis)identification of the multipolar world Russia putatively fights for, with a democratization of international relations.
- keywords
- Ukraine, Russia, South Korea, Left, nationalism
- 투고일Received
- 2024-08-22
- 수정일Revised
- 2024-10-30
- 게재확정일Accepted
- 2024-12-26
- 출판일Published
- 2025-06-30
- 다운로드 수
- 조회수
- 0KCI 피인용수
- 0WOS 피인용수