Rajat Kathuria and Sanjana Joshi (eds.), Forty Years of India–Korea Relations and Looking Ahead, Academic Foundation, New Delhi, 2014

The year 2013 marked the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relationship between India and South Korea. Even though during the Cold War, India–South Korea relations had to overcome several hiccups, they started flourishing following the end of the Cold War. In fact, in the last two decades the relationship has witnessed tremendous growth in a wide range of areas, including economic, political, socio-cultural and security. Unfortunately, not much work has been undertaken to deal with India–South Korea relations in detail. This book, edited by Rajat Kathuria and Sanjana Joshi, is commendable primarily because it has successfully brought out the key aspects of the bilateral relationship in a comprehensive manner.

The book is a compilation of papers by various noted scholars from India and South Korea. The first chapter by Jung-il Choi throws light on the evolution of the bilateral relationship. He primarily analyses the relationship from different perspectives—historical, economic and global. He argues that during the post-Cold War era, factors such as the emergence of both India and South Korea as major economic powers in Asia, India’s adoption of the Look East Policy (LEP), South Korea’s decision to normalise diplomatic relations with the states in the communist camp, and shared concerns over a rising China pushed the two countries to forge a strategic partnership in 2010. Choi is optimistic that the partnership can manifest itself in many forms in the future. He argues that both countries could deepen their relationship by collaborating on several regional and global issues ranging from climate change to nuclear development and Arctic development.