NAME: Gregor Alexis T.

Roma
COURSE & YEAR: PSC32
PROFESSOR: Sir Jumel Estranero
SUBJECT: Political Economy

THE CONCEPT OF MIDDLE POWERS AMID PANDEMIC: A CRITIQUE PAPER

REGARDING THE WEBINAR “MIDDLE POWERS IN THE INDO-PACIFIC: THE
BILATERAL-MULTILATERAL NEXUS IN KOREA-ASEAN-AUSTRALIA
PARTNERSHIP”

The concept of middle power began in the 16th century. According to Giovanni Botero,
an Italian writer, poet, and diplomat, it is “a form of power that has sufficient strength and
authority to stand on its own without the need of help from others. During the 16th century,
European states were just starting to emerge and crawl without intervention from other powerful
countries like the United States or China. In present times, countries that are middle powers are
Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Brazil, Argentina etc., all of which are members of the United
Nations. In the Indo-Pacific, Korea and Australia are middle powers, which is the main focus of
this topic, along with ASEAN.

There are three waves of middlepowerdom. The First Wave happened during the
immediate post-1945 era, followed by the Second Wave during the immediate post-Cold War
period, and the Third Wave, which happened post-2008 financial crisis era. During these times,
various countries across the globe tried to elevate their statecraft, thus earning middle powerdom.
These countries enhanced their economic status, political stances, and formed coalitions with
other middle power countries, thus extending their power, status, influence, and stability as a
state. The First Wave started with a cluster of secondary powers, with certain Western European
states attempting to make their own upgraded versions of government based on functional logic.
This involves enhancing material wealth and influence, to advocating a sense of moral and
principle-based diplomacy hinged upon human rights. The Second wave focused on
strengthening economic stability and power. The Third Wave started with middle powers
forming coalitions, and were included in the G20, an intergovernmental forum that consists of 19
countries and the European Union. This forum tackles important issues on global economy and
promotes international trade. May it be promising, the speaker of the webinar noted pessimism
against middle power regarding its autonomy and agency. A middle power can be proven strong,
but greater countries “eclipsed” or shadowed it in terms of strength and effectivity. Greater
countries exude more power, thus attracts weaker countries for reliance, especially third-world
countries.
 Let us look at Australia and Korea as middle powers. In terms of middle power
categorization, Australia is traditional, and prioritizes security and trade relations. Korea, on the
other hand is more economic-driven, and seeks to connect and safeguard between powerful
countries. Both countries are a formal ally of the United States and has China as its main trading
power. Australia seems to focus on strengthening ties with the US and has been steadily
committed since 2017, while Korea is becoming more aligned with the Indo-Pacific, becoming
nominally committed since 2017. For their capacity to implement, Australia can exercise its
power only with its alliances such as QUAD (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue), QUAD Plus, and
AUKUS (Security Alliance of Australia, United Kingdom, and the United States). For Korea, its
capacity to implement its power is yet to unfold, as it is still undecided whether they will be
strategically inclined with QUAD and other alliances, and their significance to the “Indo-Pacific
Tilt” is not yet visible. If we investigated their relationship as countries, Australia and Korea are
not close friends despite their regional significance, even though they are middle power partners.
Economically wise, they are seamless and highly compatible. In terms of domestic politics, these
countries are completely irrelevant to each other.

Let us include ASEAN in the picture. ASEAN can also be considered as a middle power.
With ASEAN serving as the binding agent to connect and bind major powers, it can connect
countries like Australia and Korea, which are both bilaterally partnered to ASEAN. Australia
became partners with ASEAN in 1947, and went through a lot of challenges, with one of it being
the strategic changes in the East Asian, Asia Pacific, and Indo-Pacific regions. In 2020, the
partnership grew larger that it exceeded the two-way trade with Japan and US, all while investing
more in the partnership. Korea also established its partnership with ASEAN since 1991, and
ASEAN became its 2nd largest trading partner and 2nd largest investment destination in 2020.
Meanwhile the First Korea-Australia Future forum took place last April 2022 in Seoul, Korea.
Since these two middle powers are affiliated with ASEAN, its multilateralism can bridge these
two countries by forming potential bilateral and multilateral linkages through its platforms. By
doing so, it can strengthen the relationship of the two middle powers. With the linkage, it can
help with tackling different facets of the society they want to work on to, like energy, security,
human rights, etc. It can also institute long-term diplomacy and Indo-Pacific vision as blueprint
for other members of ASEAN. And lastly, it can help to unify countries against external risks
such as wars, pandemic, global crisis, and other issues. However, the nexus cannot deal with
each countries’ internal issues such as domestic leadership, risk management and control, and
their partnership with other coalitions.

The bilateral-multilateral nexus in the Korea-ASEAN-Australia partnership makes sense,

considering how these countries responded to the challenges of the past generations up to the
present times. During these trying times of pandemic, building partnership can open
opportunities for trade, calamity response, and other issues present. However, these can prove to
be challenging. Korea and Australia are both an ally of US and China serves as their main
trading partner. Straying from the supply chain may not be the right decision, so it is risky.
Another risk would be the dispute with North Korea. NoKor is adamant in participating and
engaging in this matter, so it will be hard establishing full partnership. Despite the risks, I do
believe that this partnership can help elevating the state of both countries and can be a mark of a
new wave of middlepowerdom.

Both Korea and Australia are promising middle power countries in the Indo- Pacific.
However, its true potential is yet to be discovered. With the intervention of another middle
power like ASEAN, through tripartite partnership, these countries can exert and show their full
potential. The bilateral-multilateral nexus of these partnership can open more opportunities to
tackle global economic and security issues and can serve as an example and a beacon of hope for
neighboring countries and developing states.

References:
https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/asia-institute/our-research/korean-studies-research-hub/news-and-
events/korean-studies-seminar-series/middle-powers-in-the-indo-pacific-the-bilateral-
multilateral-nexus-in-korea-asean-australia-partnership?fbclid=IwAR2OsfgEA-
6pTiy_Um856gUCHcsJeZjX0S2Y8gZnFLBT2n4VWGX9AR7Fn3s