Soft Power, Hard Duty: Contradiction Between Nation Branding and Militarized Masculinity in South Korea

Sammanfattning

This thesis examined how South Korea manages the tension between the promotion of soft masculinity through cultural figures as part of its international nation branding strategy and the domestic enforcement of militarized citizenship grounded in hegemonic masculinity through conscription. Drawing primarily on theories of nation branding, the research analyzed how masculinities are strategically constructed and promoted by state and non-state actors. The research employed thematic analysis to examine government documents, media coverage, policy statements and performance videos concerning government-funded events (Music Bank World Tour, KCON) and military exemption debates. The analysis revealed soft masculinity as a key element of South Korea’s international nation branding strategy. Simultaneously, military exemption debates, particularly the contrasting outcomes of BTS’ and Son Heungmin’s cases, demonstrated that hegemonic militarized masculinity remains the primary mechanism for domestic citizenship recognition. The main finding of this study is the use of “sequential compliance” as a strategy to manage contradictory frameworks: cultural figures are required to complete military service to prove their hegemonic masculine citizenship before resuming their role as soft masculine ambassadors. Sequential compliance extends nation branding scholarship beyond spatial audience segmentation by adding temporal dimensions. This strategy demonstrated that soft masculinity’s legitimacy depends on prior proof of hegemonic masculinity through military service.