Korea and Poland: The Tyranny of Geography and the Vexations of History.

Despite substantial differences in many aspects, modern history of Korea and Poland share a significant level of similarities mainly thanks to their geographic locations between two great powers: Korea between China and Japan, and Poland between Germany and Russia. The unfavorable locations have constantly forced the two nations to adjust and accommodate to changing external environment beyond their control, while desperately trying to preserve their sovereignty. The two unfortunates had to go through partition, occupation, or colonization for a significant period of time in their modern history. The asymmetric relationships also pressured the two to build a clientele relationship with much powerful neighbor(s), especially during the Cold War. However, the end of the Cold War and domestic success of the two, both political and economic, have allowed these nations position themselves in much confident and assertive manners in both regional and global politics. The paper seeks to explain a non-major power's foreign policy behavior by historically comparing Korea and Poland. Through thorough investigation of modern history of two nations, their hedging strategy, the entrapment-abandonment dilemma, the special relationships with the US (The War on Iraq and missile defense system to name a few), and aspiration of independent foreign policy will be fully explained. This study will contribute to the development of non-major power's foreign policy and the debates in IR theory (such as balancing and bandwagoning) and provide policy implications for future security challenges of these countries. The study will also contribute to build bridges between the two disciplines of political science and history. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]