Researcher ORCID Identifier

0009-0007-8820-7266

Graduation Year

2026

Date of Submission

4-2026

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

International Relations

Reader 1

Jennifer Taw

Rights Information

© 2026 Timothy J Lee

Abstract

This paper seeks to reexamine how the Republic of Korea (ROK) was able to rise from one of the world's poorest economies after the Korean War to a leading international defense exporter today. Existing development theories—such as dependency theory, export-led industrialization, and world-systems theory—each offer partial explanations but none fully accounts for the ROK's rapid economic growth. To address this gap, the paper analyzes U.S. foreign aid data, U.S. national security documents, and the economic data of the ROK’s chaebols, family-owned business conglomerates, to reevaluate two key variables: the United States' strategic imperative to contain communism during the Cold War, and the state-directed development of the chaebols. The paper argues that U.S. involvement in the ROK was driven by geopolitical rather than economic motives, resulting in substantial foreign aid inflows that contributed to creating the conditions for chaebol growth. The ROK government then channeled this capital through state-owned banks, export agencies, and defense agencies to direct chaebol expansion into both commercial and military industries through exports. Together, these two variables produced a defense industrial base that now ranks the ROK as the world's eighth largest arms exporter. These findings suggest that geopolitically motivated foreign support, working in tandem with state-industry cooperation, can lead to economic growth and development beyond what the existing economic theories predict.

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