INTERVIEW Korea needs to change its paradigm, says US professor

James Dator, a professor and director of the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies / Courtesy of James Dator

Hawaii-based futurist lauds Korea's exceptional handling of COVID-19

The unprecedented coronavirus pandemic, which broke out in late December 2019 and has now engulfed the world, portends to reshape our lives, and the world order as we know it. This is the ninth of a series to cast light on the changes that might lie ahead. ― ED.

By Lee Kyung-min

Korea's successful rise from a war-ravaged country to an economic powerhouse in a few decades has been called “the Miracle on the Han River.” Its economic strategy rested on being a “fast follower,” where a small country with limited resources quickly copies industrial developments in bigger nations.

Local information technology (IT) companies, for example, adopted a future-oriented, sustainable strategy where they were on constant alert anticipating what top global competitors would do and then follow them to catch up.

But Korea should no longer pursue this strategy and instead adopt a new set of fundamental goals in the post-pandemic world, said James Dator, a professor and director of the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies.

“This is the biggest challenge facing Korea,” Dator told The Korea Times in an email interview.

In his view, no country will be able to “fast follow” any more. “It is time for Korea to mobilize its enviable intelligence and creativity to envision and help create a new future for yourselves and, cooperatively, for all the world.”

Korea should take advantage of the global popularity of hallyu, or the Korean wave, and the widespread admiration for its exceptional handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Korea is “at this moment very, very popular in many places around the world,” Dator said. The Korean wave should not be seen as pertaining just to popular culture but also its governance, food and overall style, he added.

“It seems Korea handled the virus exceptionally well and is touted as a world leader to be emulated. This may continue ― or fade fast. I urge with all my heart that Korea summon the wisdom from its past, its reputation in the present, and the magnetism of its futures-orientation to accept this opportunity for global inspiration and guidance,” he said.

Focus on local

The world will likely see a new form of globalization in the post-pandemic era. He defined this new world as being the “emergence of a scientific/technological elite focused on governance…based on values related to sustainability.”

Before the pandemic, which he called the “Great Emergency,” it was reasonable to imagine that neoliberal globalism ― the dominant political economy of the world from 1980 to around 2014 ― was being replaced by a neo-nationalist and neo-mercantilist world illustrated by the rise of U.S. President Donald Trump and other populists.

But now the future is unclear, Dator said. The “focus on the local and cultural rather than the global and economic is definitely one possible future, which sees a focus on local problems and solutions.”

A loose global communication network of communities focused on local issues is another possibility that could emerge. “Those (communities of network) are found among widely scattered Polynesian islands for a thousand years. They are also found now among various indigenous political groups that coordinate their unique cultural and political practices via various United Nations and other international bodies,” he noted.

Prepare to surf crises

Dator believes the key task for Korean companies will be finding a political-economic system they believe will be preferable and viable in the future, a process which will require flexibility and openness to new developments in business conditions, technological innovation and external dangers.

The greatest opportunity will lie in recognizing that the old system was largely a myth and inventing a new, fair, equitable and therefore evolvable political economy, Dator stressed.

To achieve this goal, it will be necessary to accept that the future is unpredictable and that flexibility is needed to better weather a certain crisis rather than bracing for something than cannot be anticipated.

“You can't brace for the constant onset of tsunamis. You need to prepare yourself to surf them,” he said.

This attitude is all the more necessary because the pandemic erupted while the global political-economic system since 1980 was already in the process of disintegration.

“If emerging challenges such as global climate change on the one hand and the rapid rise of autonomous artilects -- short for artificial intellects -- on the other are taken into consideration too -- as they must -- the disintegration of the old system may be well beyond anything the obsolete nation-state system can manage. Now, every county will have to find a system that they best see fit in its own way."