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Publications The NATO 2022 Strategic Concept and ROK-NATO Relations JUN Hae-Won Upload Date 2022-11-29 Hits 113016
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Ⅰ. NATO and Korea in 2022
Ⅱ. Key Changes in the 2022 NATO Strategic Concept
Ⅲ. Implications of the NATO 2022 Strategic Concept for Global Security
Ⅳ. Policy Recommendations

Ⅰ. NATO and Korea in 2022 

At the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit held in Madrid on June 29 and 30, 2022, the ‘NATO 2022 Strategic Concept’ was adopted. Along with the EU Strategic Compass, officially known as “A Strategic Compass for Security and Defense - For a European Union that protects its citizens, values and interests and contributes to international peace and security”  adopted on March 24, 2022, the NATO 2022 Strategic Concept sets out a comprehensive, long-term vision for redefining Europe’s security posture and strategies in response to the fast-changing European security landscape following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

The initial goal of the NATO 2022 Strategic Concept was to explore ways to deal with the intensifying strategic competition between the U.S. and China; decline of globalization; newly emerging security issues driven by technological advances; and security vulnerabilities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. As manifested by Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, persistent threat of Russian aggression has necessitated the inclusion of Europe’s commitment to strengthening its defense capabilities in the Strategic Concept. Having said that, observers around the world had shown greater interest in how the Concept would describe the bloc’s approach to China. Then came the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which prompted the final version of the Strategic Concept to place more emphasis on the need to reshape European security posture and related strategies. 

Overall, the 2022 Strategic Concept represents a relatively clearer direction and offers more details compared to the 2010 edition. A series of incidents that took place from the 2010s to early 2020s has led NATO member countries to gradually move towards a shared understanding of the regional strategic environment. The 2022 Concept acknowledges a sense of urgency to deal with the fast-changing security landscape in Europe and strikes a more critical tone toward China and Russia. While the 2010 Strategic Concept struck a relatively neutral tone with refined wording, the 2022 Strategic Concept noticeably uses more political expressions and detailed, unambiguous language. 

This report analyzes the NATO 2022 Strategic Concept, forecasts how it will be implemented, and suggests how the Korean government could forge a more effective NATO policy. An analysis of NATO’s new strategic concept has significance in forecasting Europe’s security landscape, U.S.-Europe relations, and NATO’s roles in dealing with global security issues. The new strategic concept builds on the key elements of the previous strategic concept to specify NATO’s stance toward China, the Indo-Pacific, and its so-called ‘four Asia-Pacific partners (AP4: Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand),’ and therefore has implications for Korea’s policy direction. 

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IFANS PERSPECTIVES 2022-10E(전혜원).pdf
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