Southward Bound

This book looks at the regional policies of two ‘middle powers’ in the Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan and South Korea, and provides critical reflections on the ways both have sought to broaden their options for strategic manoeuvres with their southern neighbours.

The chapters in this edited volume carefully examine the ‘New Southbound Policy’ (NSP-T), introduced by Taiwan (2016-present), and the ‘New Southern Policy’ (NSP-K), by South Korea (2017-2022). Both policies are aimed at important neighbours, namely Southeast Asia and India, who are major recipients of Taiwanese and South Korean capital, technology, cultural influence, and educational aid, and seek to improve diplomatic and foreign relations of these two countries with the region.

Southward Bound: Examining the Regional Policies of Taiwan and South Korea will be of great value to students and scholars interested in Asian Studies, foreign policies of Asian countries, politics and international security. The chapters in this book were originally published in Asian Affairs.

Nurliana Kamaruddin is currently Deputy Executive Director (Academic and Students Affair) and Senior Lecturer at the Asia-Europe Institute at Universiti Malaya, Malaysia. She specialises in international security and development cooperation with an area focus on East Asia.

Karl Chee Leong Lee is Senior Lecturer in the Institute of China Studies (ICS) at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Malaya, Malaysia, and Expert Advisor to Market Research Future. He is a specialist on Taiwan’s soft power and quasi-state relations with Southeast Asia.

Nur Shahadah Jamil is Senior Lecturer at Institute of China Studies (ICS) at the University of Malaya, Malaysia. Her research interests include East Asian security, China’s foreign policy, South China Sea dispute, Xinjiang, regional multilateralism and Malaysia’s external policy.