This brief argues that as global geopolitical risks expand and the boundaries between diplomacy, security, economics, and technology rapidly dissolve, Korea needs to move beyond fragmented responses by individual ministries and policy areas and build a "whole-of-nation diplomacy" system that consolidates the country's diverse capabilities under a single strategy. It explains that today's threats, including U.S.-China strategic competition and supply chain realignment, advanced technology competition, North Korea's nuclear program, and climate and pandemic risks, are complex problems spanning politics, diplomacy, economics, industry, science and technology, and intelligence. The brief's core diagnosis is that no single ministry or policy tool can effectively address these challenges alone, and that for the nation's survival and prosperity, the capabilities held by government and society must be organically linked.

The need for whole-of-nation diplomacy is clearly evident in recent major external issues. Semiconductor supply chain cooperation, for instance, requires not only trade diplomacy but also technology cooperation and security policy at the same time. Nuclear power and defense industry exports need to be backed simultaneously by industrial technology, finance, international law, military cooperation, and summit-level diplomacy and strategic communication. The brief explains that competition over artificial intelligence, batteries, critical minerals, and quantum technology is likewise not a task for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs alone, but requires close cooperation among the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of National Defense, and intelligence agencies. Yet the brief points out that Korea's foreign policy still has not sufficiently overcome the limits of "siloed diplomacy," in which work remains divided along ministry lines and jurisdictions. To resolve this, the brief stresses that diplomacy, security, economics, technology, and intelligence must be integrated under a single national strategy. This means combining a whole-of-government approach that spans ministries with a whole-of-society approach that engages businesses, universities, research institutions, and civil society, and pooling every national asset, including the country's brand and international personal networks, under one overarching strategy. The brief emphasizes that "whole-of-nation diplomacy" is not simply about increasing the volume of diplomatic activity or strengthening inter-ministerial coordination, but represents an institutional shift toward operating the entire nation as a single diplomatic platform.

The brief concludes that the core of whole-of-nation diplomacy lies in expanding "the government's diplomacy" into "the nation's diplomacy." For government ministries, the National Assembly, businesses, research institutions, and civil society to pool their expertise and networks toward national goals, the National Assembly must serve as the central platform that coordinates national strategy, builds bipartisan consensus, and connects the capabilities of society as a whole. Lee Sang-hyun, Visiting Research Fellow at the National Assembly Futures Institute, who authored the brief, stated: "In an era of heightened global geopolitical risk, where diplomacy, security, economics, and technology are tightly intertwined, no single ministry's capacity is enough to safeguard the national interest." He added, "Korea must build a whole-of-nation diplomacy system that organically combines its political, economic, technological, social, and diplomatic capabilities and carries them out as a coherent strategy on the international stage."

Sang Hyun Lee｜​July 28, 2026

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