Investigating the Impact of U.S.-China Rivalry on the Korean Peninsula Crisis (2016-2022)

Subject Areas : International Relations

اردشیر سنایی ¹ , heidar keshavarz ^{2 *} , hamidreza shirzad ³

1 -
2 - Department of International Relations, Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch
3 - Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran branch, Tehran, Iran

Received: 2024-06-15 Accepted : 2024-09-01 Published : 2025-06-04

Keywords: United States, China, Korean Peninsula, North Korea, South Korea,

Abstract :

The confrontation between the United States and China, as one of the vital geopolitical issues in the twenty-first century, has expanded in the security, political, and economic domains. This confrontation could have profound effects on the Korean Peninsula crisis. The main question of this article is how the rivalry between the United States and China from 2016 to 2022 has affected the Korean Peninsula crisis. The hypothesis of this article is that the escalation of economic, political, and security aspects of the U.S.-China rivalry, especially during the Trump era and Biden's focus on containing China, has led to a lack of peace and stability, increased tensions and competitions, and exacerbated the Korean Peninsula crisis. Research findings indicate that politically, differences arising from issues such as nuclear weapons and relations with the United States and China, and contradictions between North and South Korea, and from a security perspective, the strengthening of the military-security alliance between the United States and South Korea, China's increased influence in North Korea, increased missile and nuclear tests by North Korea, and in the economic sphere, reduced trade and investment, increased military costs in the Korean Peninsula, international sanctions against North Korea, and economic sanctions by China against South Korea have intensified the crisis. The research, based on an applied goal and a descriptive-analytical approach, and using case study method, attempts to analyze and interpret the subject by utilizing reputable political, security, and economic documentary sources and searching databases.

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