Citation

Spero JB. Contemp. Secur. Policy 2009; 30(1): 147-171.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/13523260902760355

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

By theoretically and empirically examining regional middle power influence, this article explores how particular middle powers emerge pivotally to affect great powers. Clearly, middle powers like Poland and South Korea cannot act effectively alone. But they are at the centre of greater power disputes and must insulate themselves from great power alignments to preserve independence and prosperity. Even with their frequent predicaments, such as limited resources and modest power capabilities, middle powers can influence great power security dilemmas, and even can reduce those dilemmas through regional and cooperative bridging alignments.

This analysis of the Republic of Poland and the Republic of South Korea demonstrates why their other-help foreign policy alignment pivotally affects great-power self-help security dilemmas. Examining other-help security alignments for specialized, regional, and bridge building by these pivotal middle powers at the twentieth century's end reveals important insights into their 21st-century impact. This article also extends the insights of self-help in international relations, showing how Poland and South Korea tried to reduce regional great power security dilemmas differently in the 1990s. Thus, analysis of theoretical and foreign policy alignments that Poland and South Korea promoted towards their neighbours in the early 1990s and late 1990s, respectively focuses on extending international relations theory for other-help middle power bridging. This analysis shows how democratized and globally integrative middle powers like Poland and South Korea do, in fact, influence some of the 21st century's most important security challenges, particularly lessening great power security dilemmas.