How South Korea Can Survive the Unbundling of International Order

South Korea’s strategic challenges – and the potential solutions – make the case for democratic multilateralism. 

For most of the post-war era, power, legitimacy, and cooperation reinforced one another. American leadership underwrote security, open markets, and freedom of navigation. Democratic partnerships generated political trust. Universal institutions such as the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, and the nuclear nonproliferation regime provided common rules and legal legitimacy. Though imperfect, these three pillars generally worked in concert.

That alignment has broken down. Security, economic governance, political legitimacy, and practical cooperation are no longer occurring in the same institutions or even among the same groups of states. I call this structural transformation the “unbundling of order.” The result is disalignment, a condition in which power, legitimacy, and cooperation no longer reinforce one another.

Analysts today often ask whether the liberal international order is collapsing or which great power will replace the United States. The real question is whether the essential functions of the international order can be reconnected under increasingly fragmented geopolitical conditions. 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exposed the inability of existing institutions like the United Nations to prevent or halt great power aggression. The ongoing conflict between the United States and Iran demonstrated that military superiority alone cannot ensure regional stability or the credibility of the global nonproliferation regime. Competition – especially, but not exclusively between China and the United States – over semiconductors, artificial intelligence, critical minerals, and maritime supply chains blurs the traditional boundary between economics and security. 

Cooperation is increasingly necessary, but the most inclusive institutions are often the least capable of collective action. This paradox has driven the rise of minilateralism. Smaller groups of like-minded partners can coordinate quickly, protect sensitive technologies, strengthen supply chain resilience, and respond effectively to shared threats. But while minilateral coalitions can act quickly, they lack broad legitimacy. Meanwhile, universal institutions provide legal authority and political inclusion but often struggle to act. 

Neither is sufficient alone. Democratic multilateralism must combine legitimacy with operational capacity. 

This is why democracy itself retains strategic importance. Democratic multilateralism is more than cooperation among states with shared political values. It provides a foundation for institutional trust. Intelligence sharing, advanced technology cooperation, defense industrial integration, financial coordination, and resilient supply chains all depend on confidence that partners will safeguard sensitive information, uphold long-term commitments, and remain accountable despite changes in government. Democratic governments may disagree, yet transparent institutions and political accountability make sustained strategic cooperation more credible. 

South Korea stands at the intersection of today’s defining strategic challenges: nuclear deterrence, China-U.S. competition, technological rivalry, supply........

© The Diplomat