Experience Stern | Faculty & Research

As geopolitical tensions and conflicts intensify, leaders around the world are being forced to reposition their countries and their companies strategically in an increasingly complex and unstable world order. Korea, which has close ties with both the United States and China, is particularly affected. In this context, it is essential to understand Korea’s international relations with up-to-date data for policy making. The data suggests that Korea should not focus solely on US-China relations, but should devise national strategies from a broader perspective.

The DHL Global Connectedness Tracker, which I co-authored with Caroline Bastian, a senior fellow at New York University’s Stern School of Business, is a regular report analyzing international flows around the world in a variety of areas. To evaluate countries’ international interactions from a geopolitical perspective, the report uses a geopolitical categorization system developed by Capital Economics. All countries other than the United States and China fall into one of five categories: US Close Allies, Leans US, Unaligned, Leans China, and China Close Allies.

The graph included in this column shows how much international exchange Korea has with which countries by geopolitical category, based on eight sectors including international trade, investment, and research cooperation. In addition, data from 2016 is also presented for comparison. This was before the inauguration of the first Trump administration, before the US-China trade war began in earnest, and before the Korea-China economic relationship faltered after the deployment of THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense). The following four implications can be derived from this data.

Read the full The Korea Herald article.
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Steven Altman is an Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Management and Organizations and Senior Research Scholar and Director of the DHL Initiative on Globalization at NYU Stern’s Center for the Future of Management