The Center Cannot Hold: Explaining the Volatile Perception Towards the United States Among the South Korean Public, 2003-2008

Abstract

From 2003 to 2008, South Korea experienced a unique period of volatile perception towards the United States. After an explosion of anti-American perception in 2002, citizens of South Korea continued to display a level of heightened and easily agitated animosity towards to the United States for the next five years. Emerging scholarship regarding this period attempts to locate the origin of the phenomenon in ideological anti-Americanism, emotional anti-American sentiment, or a combination thereof. This paper posits that the volatility in this period emerged from the rivalry between anti-American and pro-American sentiments that were ongoing at the time, fueled by the entrenched ideological anti-Americanism and pro-Americanism within South Korean society. Furthermore, this paper finds that there was a sizable amount population in the center that did not belong to either ideological camp. The temporary nature of this group's affiliation to either anti- or pro-American sentiments is a likely explanation behind the volatility of anti-American perception during this period.