The concept of military power has two starkly different subcategories: hard and soft power. The former normally involves the use of coercive military means such as the conventional forces or nuclear weapons, while the latter is achieved by noncoercive means of persuasion, including personal exchanges, joint military drills and military diplomacy.

In the 21st century, many states are opting to focus more on military soft power. Direct military confrontations not only pose a grave risk to national security but also leaves belligerents, be they winners or losers, with great losses. Indeed, both hard and soft power are necessary for national security, just as birds need two wings to fly. In other words, the importance of maintaining a basic military readiness posture should not be overshadowed by soft-power efforts. Still, I believe that a more realistic and desirable option for governments is to build up efforts in military diplomacy.

The South Korean military also utilizes both hard-power and soft-power measures to achieve its national security goals. It maintains the readiness posture against direct military threats from North Korea, and, at the same time, it seeks better military ties and closer cooperation with its neighboring states that have great bearing on the security and military situation on the Korean Peninsula. That is, through its soft power, Seoul tries to ease tensions with its wary neighbors and leave them with a positive image of the South. Benefits of these soft-power efforts for national security are no less significant than the ones from building up military might, as the former kind of power offers Seoul a chance to create a friendly security environment.
Professor Hwang JaehoThe Seoul Defense Dialogue demonstrates how effective South Korea’s military soft-power approach is. The 1.5-track security forum, with the aim of building trust among Asia-Pacific nations, brings together high-ranking government officials in charge of national security and civilian security experts in the region. The SDD held its fifth meeting this week.

To describe the characteristics of the forum, I would like to take its acronym SDD and say it is “synergistic, dynamic, and decisive.”

First, the SDD creates synergies for regional peace and security along with other international security platforms. It shares the experiences and insights of nations that host other major security dialogues, such as on how they resolved pressing security issues in their respective regions. Examples of these forums include Singapore’s Shangri-La Dialogue, Germany’s Munich Security Conference, Canada’s Halifax International Security Forum and China’s Xiangshan Forum. The synergy comes as part of the South’s overall diplomatic efforts, and the SDD provides Seoul’s Defense Ministry with an international-level platform for promoting the country’s North Korea and foreign policy objectives.

Second, the SDD is dynamic. It has expanded the scope of exchanges from bilateral ones between global powers to a multilateral one, bringing Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia together. The forum is set to be even more dynamic this year, as it now attracts more participants than at the beginning. For this year’s gathering, some 300 attendees from 34 nations and five international organizations have come to Seoul, compared to about 100 from 15 countries and two organizations in the first meeting in 2012. The forum’s content has also become more dynamic. While the issue of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and its weapons of mass destruction programs dominated the forum in its early years, nonconventional security issues are now high on the agenda as well, including cybersecurity, health security, terrorism, disaster relief and maritime cooperation.

The SDD also provides participants with a clear overview of analyses, policies and various stances on all issues on the Korean Peninsula. In past meetings, the forum’s attendees have agreed that North Korea’s threat is not just rhetorical, but a real one, and they had an in-depth and thorough discussion on the issue. They also shared insights on the Peninsula’s current situation from various perspectives. Joerg Schoenbohm, Germany’s vice defense minister who played a key role in disbanding East German forces, joined the gathering in 2014 and discussed the lessons South Korea could learn from his country’s experience. The meeting was also attended by Angela Kane, former UN high representative for disarmament affairs, who shared her insights on the military balance on the Korean Peninsula. This year’s gathering was joined by Ahmet Uezuemcue, director general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, who reminded the world of the North’s weapons of mass destruction threats to the global community.

Last but not least, the SDD aims to be decisive. It already offers participants the opportunity to share their understanding and opinions on the challenges facing the Korean Peninsula. South Korea seeks to go beyond this role and turn the SDD into a platform that produces tangible solutions. The forum’s host nation aims to outline its vision for the Korean reunification and create a friendly international environment for the goal, through discussion rather than monologue and through listening to others rather than forcing its opinion upon others. As a middle power, Seoul seeks to appeal to the international community with its collective mindset, which emphasizes collective thoughts, action and responsibility.

Going back to the analogy of birds’ wings, the SDD represents the South’s military soft-power wing that enables the country to share its security interests with others. Along with the military hard-power wing, it will allow Korea to soar high.

By Hwang Jae-ho

Hwang Jae-ho is the dean of international affairs at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. He has played an advisory role in hosting the SDD since 2012. This year, he was in charge of organizing international experts for the evaluation of SDD as well as coordinating foreign cooperation. -Ed.