[Global Column] Changes in the International Order and the Realm of Politics

The current important topic in our society is change. This is both an objective judgment that the world around us is changing and a normative judgment that we must change in order to survive in the changed world. The change in the world is not only a physical process but also a conceptual process. For humans to make a specific choice, an interpretation of the social environment surrounding them must precede. Therefore, the influence of changes in the physical environment around us depends on how we interpret these changes.

The change in the international order is also essentially a conceptual process. The change in the international order is ultimately the result of the interaction of political choices made by each country. Furthermore, each country's political choices depend on how they interpret and assign meaning to the external shocks they currently face. Therefore, the change in the international order is both an 'exogenous' process caused by external shocks and an 'endogenous' process that assigns specific meanings to those external shocks.

External shocks such as China's growth or the spread of COVID-19 are key physical factors that can cause profound changes in the current international order. However, the influence of these factors on the change in the international order depends on the interpretation of what these shocks mean for our lives. Whether China's growth will fundamentally change the US-centered international order depends on how each country interprets and assigns meaning to China's growth. Similarly, whether the spread of COVID-19 will remain a temporary phenomenon or cause fundamental changes to globalization depends on how we interpret and accept the shock brought by COVID-19.

Political choices or political processes are not originally in the realm of objective fact judgment. The realm of politics is a process of interpreting specific facts and assigning meaning to them. The fact that China is growing to the extent that it can threaten US hegemony is a matter of objective fact judgment. Also, the fact that international exchanges have sharply decreased for nearly two years due to COVID-19 is also in the realm of fact judgment. However, how to interpret these external shocks and what meaning to assign to them is not a matter of fact judgment but a matter of politics.

From the perspective of South Korea, which has grown within the US-centered international order since 1945, whether to perceive China's growth as a threat to the stability of the international order we must protect or as an opportunity to form a new order is a political choice. From the perspective of South Korea, which has succeeded in economic development through foreign trade, whether to interpret COVID-19 as a threat to globalization that must be overcome in the future or as a threat caused by the rapidly increased globalization itself is a matter to be decided in the political process.

In democratic systems, elections are the most important political process where such interpretations and meanings are assigned. Currently, South Korea is not only facing external shocks but also approaching a presidential election. I hope this presidential election will be a political process that debates the interpretation and meaning of the external shocks we currently face.

Professor, Department of International Relations, Ulsan University

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