혼종 식민성(Hybrid coloniality): 탈식민주의로 바라본 한국의 외교안보정책

초록

From the theoretical perspective of postcolonialism, this article examines the postcolonialsing processes of Korea since its liberation in 1945 and takes a close look at the ramifications of the international events at that time, such as the 1945 division of the Korean peninsula, the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty, and the 1950-1953 Korean War, for South Korea’s foreign and security policy thinking and behaviour in the postwar period. In doing so, the article shows that how “coloniality” has been embedded in South Korean foreign and security policy thinking and behaviour in its postcolonialising processes. To elucidate this point, the article first discusses postcolonialism theory explicating its manifold meanings and implications. Based on this theoretical discussion, the article notes that Korea’s liberation did not lead to restoring postcolonial subjectivity in the realms of foreign affairs and national security. Rather, coloniality at both material and socio-epistemic levels remains deeply entrenched in Korean foreign and security policy thinking and practice. This is mainly due to the international and domestic political events that Korea has gone through since its 1945 liberation, especially during the cold war period. More specifically, the cold war, as a structural divide at the global level, unfolded in a very different manner in Asia as compared with Europe, which has resulted in a US-Japanese centered regional security system of anti-communism. This system was, once again, consolidated through the Korean War, and then filtered into the domestic politics of South Korea ruled by military dictatorial regimes, who were seeking their political legitimacy from American recognition or approval. Ultimately, the combination of these global, regional, and domestic dynamics has brought about a ‘hybrid’ coloniality to South Korea’s external behaviour. The problem is this ‘hybrid’ coloniality in which South Korea for itself contemplates its foreign policy actions and makes moral judges about those actions either on the basis of ‘American’ positions and values or within the context of the relationship with the US remains prevalent even after the collapse of the (global) cold war system in 1990. How to overcome this? As postcolonialism theory points out, the ways to address a hybrid coloniality should be met with the processes of emancipation from the coloniality of episteme/knowledge; and these emancipation processes ought to point toward pluralism in making truth claims and recognising diverse subjectivities and modernities. Considering this, the article offers pathways to overcome South Korea’s hybrid coloniality by building on and expanding the insights of “Global IR” and the emerging field of “vernacular” security studies.

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