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Transboundary fine dust has been a leading cause of dispute between China and Korea since the mid‐2010s. This study observes that transboundary fine dust is not purely an environmental issue, but rather mixed with political and diplomatic challenges. Despite the emerging bilateral and multilateral efforts to tackle this issue, this research sheds light on how political and diplomatic factors have undermined the outcomes of environmental negotiations between China and Korea. We highlight three dimensions of policy‐based studies: scientific joint research on source‐receptor relationships, interstate environmental negotiations, and multilateral environmental institutions in Northeast Asia. This study argues that transboundary fine dust cooperation has been extensively entangled with national political interests and proceeded via diplomatic channels, leading to the current absence of binding agreements and policy commitments. Therefore, a steady process of de‐linking environmental cooperation and diplomatic fluctuations would be the best direction to proceed in a long‐term perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A vast literature debates the causes, workings and consequences of democracy: a Google Scholar search returns some 3.6 million studies on the subject; by way of contrast, studies on authoritarianism or populism barely reach 350,000. Thus, the magnitude and force of the seismic shifts in Korean politics in at least two instances - constitutional democratisation in 1988 and the constitutional removal of a president from office in 2017 - warrants an examination of the role of civil society in local- and national-level politics in Korea and what they mean for democratic accountability and support. However, just as the number of democracies in the Third Wave looked set to outpace the number of non-democracies, democratisation for many of the liberalising countries in the Third Wave began to stall and even reverse; at the same time, democracies saw erosions to government accountability gain pace even as autocracies seemed poised to remain in office (Gandhi, 2019; Haggard & Kaufman, 2016). CONCLUSION With the vast literature on democracy, it bears reminding that democracy studies are empirically driven, fuelled in no small part by the ebbs and flows of the waves of democracy on the ground. [Extracted from the article]

Does decentralisation lead to higher citizens' satisfaction with the public services that local governments provide? Despite arguments that decentralisation improves public service delivery, studies have not successfully verified the effects of decentralisation on citizen evaluations of local government services. Given the importance of increased local empowerment in promoting desired public goods, we examine whether the hypothesised advantages of decentralisation on public service delivery still hold when applied to citizens' satisfaction with public services. Specifically, we explore both the direct and indirect impacts of decentralisation on citizens' satisfaction through the mediating impact of the local management capacity in Korea. Based on structural equation modelling, the results indicate that decentralisation has a direct negative impact on public service satisfaction, but its impact is not mediated by local management capacity. Due to Korean citizens' lower expectations regarding decentralisation, citizens' satisfaction is not improved even when local management capacity is increased via higher decentralisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government‐driven industrial clusters have attracted considerable attention from academic research as well as practical fields, mainly because of their contributions to regional economic growth and sustainable innovation performance. This article investigates the impact of government‐driven industrial districts on the efficiency of new technology‐based firms in information and communications technology industries. Using a meta‐frontier analysis with a unique Korean start‐up dataset, we find that the government's provision of industrial districts increases firm efficiency level compared with that of others outside the districts. Specifically, being located in industrial districts not only improves the efficiency of individual start‐ups but also positively affects the maximum efficiency levels that firms can achieve. Our findings suggest that locational support by public administration, such as utility infrastructure, tax benefits and inter‐firm informal network opportunities, enhances firms' dynamic capability to search for and combine resources to create new markets and innovations, especially for newly established technology firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Digital diplomacy is the latest technological advance to push change in diplomatic practice. It relates to the application of digital technologies, including information and communication technologies, software engineering and big data, and artificial intelligence, to the practice of diplomacy. Positioned in the top ranks of connectivity, internet speed, smartphone ownership, and social media usage, South Korea should be a leader in the use of digital technologies in diplomatic practice. However, South Korea is not a leader; indeed, it has been left behind. I explore digital diplomacy as a “disruptive technology” and look at criteria for organizational adaptation. I then use these criteria to assess South Korea's adaptation and draw from these the specific policy challenges facing South Korea. To conclude, I propose four core criteria to aid digital diplomacy adaptation in South Korea and other similar states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Nuclear energy has provided a major source of clean electricity for South Korea over decades. However, the South Korean Government announced an energy transition roadmap aiming to reduce nuclear shares and increase renewable shares. However, given the nation's high population density, the maximum share of renewable sources for electricity generation in South Korea is constrained. The roadmap was silent on how to fill the gap between a reduced nuclear output and the limited renewable potentials. The tacit alternatives are fossil fuels, and their deployment will become the key determining factor on how South Korea approaches the problem of greenhouse gas emissions reductions. We used scenario analysis to investigate two fossil‐intensive cases, alongside a hypothetical renewable case. On the basis of the comparison of the three scenarios with other countries, we provide an insight into the feasibility and limitations of the nonnuclear options and propose the techno‐economic requirements for avoiding the worst outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although South Korea is one of the newest members to join the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Development Assistance Committee in 2010, it has a long history of official development assistance ( ODA), first as a recipient of aid (1945-1995) and later as an emerging donor (with the establishment of aid-implementing agencies for concessional loans in 1987, and for grant aid in 1991, respectively). And, global public health has been one of the three largest outreach areas of South Korea's foreign aid programmes. This article examines the global public health outreach activities of South Korea's leading aid-implementing agencies, namely Korea International Cooperation Agency, Korea Foundation for International Healthcare and Economic Development and Cooperation Fund, using data for the latest period, 2008-2012. South Korea's innovative global public health ODA through the Global Poverty Eradication Contribution is also examined. The analysis of global public health outreach activities has shown that South Korea has concentrated its foreign aid to Asia and Africa, and that a large share of its aid has been focused on health care services; water, sanitation and hygiene ( WASH); maternal and child health ( MCH); and infectious diseases. A significant regional difference was found: South Korea's aid focused on health care services and MCH in Asia, while it focused on WASH and infectious diseases in Africa. Findings have also shown that South Korea's priority countries for development cooperation have received more aid compared with non-priority countries. In conclusion, we have found that South Korea's global health outreach activities were in line with the Millennium Development Goals ( MDGs), but that they lack a clear focus and do not have globally recognised initiatives or projects compared with large and traditional donors such as the United States and Japan. Further research is needed to examine the impact of the rapidly rising aid activities of South Korea, especially in global public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]