This week will see the Korean Association of International Studies and the Korea Foundation host an international conference on the role of middle powers in the 21st century. The significance of the conference being held in South Korea is twofold ― it marks Korea’s prominence as a source of innovative and influential scholarship on middlepowerism, and it marks Korea’s growing acceptance of middlepowerism as a national role.

With South Korea increasingly flexing its diplomatic muscles on the international stage, it is time to focus on strengthening its soft power, a scholar-turned-diplomat in Seoul said. Korea Foundation president Kim Woo-sang argues that the nation should foster a network of multilateral cooperation, particularly with emerging “middle power” countries.