Editors: Nurliana Kamaruddin, Karl Chee Leong Lee, Nur Shahadah Jamil
eBook ISBN: 9781032692449 (Published June 7, 2024)
Hardcover ISBN: 9781032692418 (Published June 7, 2024)
Paperback ISBN: 9781032692432 (November 28, 2025)
Publisher: Routledge
This book looks at the regional policies of two ‘middle powers’ in the Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan and South Korea, and provides critical reflections on the ways both have sought to broaden their options for strategic manoeuvres with their southern neighbours.
The chapters in this edited volume carefully examine the ‘New Southbound Policy’ (NSP-T), introduced by Taiwan (2016-present), and the ‘New Southern Policy’ (NSP-K), by South Korea (2017-2022). Both policies are aimed at important neighbours, namely Southeast Asia and India, who are major recipients of Taiwanese and South Korean capital, technology, cultural influence, and educational aid, and seek to improve diplomatic and foreign relations of these two countries with the region.
Southward Bound: Examining the Regional Policies of Taiwan and South Korea will be of great value to students and scholars interested in Asian Studies, foreign policies of Asian countries, politics and international security. The chapters in this book were originally published in Asian Affairs.
Introduction—Looking South: Comparing the Regional Policies of Taiwan and South Korea
Karl Chee Leong Lee, Nur Shahadah Jamil and Nurliana Kamaruddin
1. Conceptualising Taiwan’s Soft Power Projection in its ‘New Southbound Policy’
Karl Chee Leong Lee
2. The Evolution of South Korea’s New Southern Policy (NSP-K): The Moon and Yoon Administrations
Sera Yun and Jan Vincent Galas
3. Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy in Southeast Asia and the ‘China Factor’: Deepening Regional Integration Amid New Reality
Nur Shahadah Jamil
4. The NSP-K and NSP-K Plus: Elevating South Korea’s Middle Power Presence Among Asean Member Countries
Nurliana Kamaruddin and Aaron Denison Deivasagayam
5. Situating India in Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy
Sana Hashmi
6. South Korea’s New Southern Policy and the Middle Power Quest: Implications for India-Korea Relations
Jojin V. John
7. Navigating the Politics of Soft Power: Taiwan and Korea’s Regional Approach in Comparison
Alan Hao Yang and Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao
Nurliana Kamaruddin is currently Deputy Executive Director (Academic and Students Affair) and Senior Lecturer at the Asia-Europe Institute at Universiti Malaya, Malaysia. She specialises in international security and development cooperation with an area focus on East Asia.
Karl Chee Leong Lee is Senior Lecturer in the Institute of China Studies (ICS) at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Malaya, Malaysia, and Expert Advisor to Market Research Future. He is a specialist on Taiwan’s soft power and quasi-state relations with Southeast Asia.
Nur Shahadah Jamil is Senior Lecturer at Institute of China Studies (ICS) at the University of Malaya, Malaysia. Her research interests include East Asian security, China’s foreign policy, South China Sea dispute, Xinjiang, regional multilateralism and Malaysia’s external policy.
Last Update: 11/11/2025
