Russia’s Great Game Stratagem toward the Korean Peninsula Revisited: Lessons from the Failure of Imperial Russia

This paper explores Imperial Russia’s Great Game Stratagem toward the Korean Peninsula and Russo-Japanese rivalry as well as Korea’s position in the balancing of power relations. Reconsidering the imperial Russian foreign policy toward Korea in the late 19th century and the early 20th century is essential to understanding the current policy of Russia toward the Korean peninsula and the dynamics of East Asian relations. Both the outcome and behavior of imperial Russian policy toward East Asia resembles in many ways those of the post Imperial Russian policy. This is because the perceptions that Russia and Korea developed about each other during that period still shape Russia’s foreign policy today. Perhaps, the best way to look at imperial Russia’s strategy toward the peninsula is to examine Russia’s behavior toward other great powers that were involved in the game of balancing power in Northeast Asia during that period. Finally, this paper delivers the crucial lesson for future Korean leadership and Korean diplomacy in the region.