The Diplomacy of Programme Boundaries: The Republic of Korea and the Colombo Plan

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The appointment of the South Korean economist, Kim Hak-su, as the first Secretary-General of the Colombo Plan for Cooperative Economic and Social Development in Asia and the Pacific in 1995, demonstrated the country’s emergence as an Asia tiger. The appointment was also indicative of Seoul’s desire to use the Plan to channel development aid and technical expertise to the less developed countries in the region. Whereas the Republic of Korea’s participation and contribution to the Colombo Plan is well documented, there is little in the extant literature that provides insights into the diplomatic processes through which it gained membership in a programme that was originally restricted to only the Commonwealth and non-communist states in South and Southeast Asia. Using archival sources, the article explores the politics and diplomacy of Seoul’s bid for membership in the Colombo Plan Consultative Committee. It also explores the reasons why Seoul led the effort to rejuvenate the Plan in the 1990s.