A Study on the Concept of ‘Leading Country’ (2021.12)
- Author : Wang Hwi Lee, Nam-Kook KIM
- Publication : RIAS
- Publisher : Institute of International Affairs
- Volume : 30(4)
- Date : December, 2021
Abstract: In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the concept of a leading country is gaining salience in which a state sets an example on how to respond to a new global crisis. This article examines the definition and ideological origins of the leading country concept, as well as its necessary conditions and examples of leading countries for each stage of industrial revolution. This article also compares concepts similar to those of leading countries such as hegemonic states, great powers, advanced countries, advanced small countries, and middle powers. The concept of a leading country refers to a state that provides an example for other countries to refer to by faithfully carrying out good policies or systems from a normative point of view. Leading countries are distinguished from advanced countries, which are defined as countries who are at a more advanced stage than others on the singular path to development assumed by modernization theory. They are different from great powers that set as their ultimate goal as national prosperity and defense because leading countries can lead the zeitgeist of the times and present a direction that other countries should go in. Leading countries also wish to accrue influence through good examples of governance, unlike hegemonic states that project their overwhelming national power to the world. In other words, the leading country is a new concept of a country that leads the international order in a better direction by exerting its influence and setting an example for other countries to follow beyond the existing concepts of advanced countries, great powers, and hegemonic states.