The essay this podcast episode is based on sets the stage for the Strategic Studies Institute’s research on the growing importance of South Korea to the US alliance system and security objectives across the Indo-Pacific region, provides reasons why South Korea may become commensurate with Japan as the region’s primary US ally, and proposes ways the United States should leverage this reality to maximize this relationship and maintain a free and open Pacific. This important analysis challenges the orthodox view of South Korea as a self-contained problem set with little relevance to other regional security issues and explains its underappreciated connections to regional stability.

Read the article here: https://press.armywarcollege.edu/parameters/vol53/iss2/15/

Email usarmy.carlisle.awc.mbx.parameters@army.mil to give feedback on this podcast or the genesis article.

Keywords: South Korea, North Korea, Indo-Pacific (INDOPACOM), armistice agreement, security, nuclear, Russia-Ukraine War, national defense

Download the transcript: https://media.defense.gov/2024/May/30/2003475800/-1/-1/0/DP-5-8-Wolford-Transcript.PDF