Security Cooperation and Deterrence in Korea

Abstract

The United States' insufficient investment in security assistance and cooperation to build the capacity of the Republic of Korea's (ROK) military before the start of the Korean War contributed to the ROK's inability to deter or effectively conduct military operations. Since the Korean War, the U.S. strategy to deter North Korean aggression and maintaining security and stability in the Pacific precipitated the need for increased security assistance and cooperation to the ROK. In an era of globalization, the security of the Korean peninsula continues to evolve in relation to the increasing military capabilities and uncertainty of North Korean strategic objectives. In order to achieve stability in Korea, U.S. policy states "we will maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula by effectively working with allies and other regional states to deter and defend against provocation from North Korea, which is actively pursuing a nuclear weapons program." The way in which the United States Government (USG) achieves this policy objective is through security assistance programs managed by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA). The means to maintain peace and effective deterrence on the Korean Peninsula are through the combination of security assistance programs managed and executed by the Department of State (DOS) and the security cooperation programs managed and executed by the Department of Defense (DOD). This study of U.S.-ROK relations and the Korean War will focus on one particular security assistance program, Foreign Military Sales (FMS), and security cooperation programs to include combined operations and combined exercises. The correlation of how these programs shaped the events leading to the Korean War and the evolution of U.S.-ROK security assistance and cooperation over the course of the last century will illustrate the importance of security assistance and cooperation to building partnership capacity in order to prevent future conflict on the Korean Peninsula. The

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 23, 2013
Accession Number
ADA586932

Entities

People

  • Cedric G. Lee

Organizations

  • United States Army Command and General Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Department Of State
  • International Relations
  • Investments
  • Korean War
  • Military Advisors
  • Military Exercises
  • Military History
  • Military Operations
  • Military Personnel
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • North Korea
  • Personnel Management
  • Political Systems
  • Security
  • Treaties
  • United States Government

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • International Relations, focusing on Korea-Africa and North Korea-South Korea relations, and Nigeria-Latin American Relations.
  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.