Two paths to managing COVID-19: the varieties of state tradition and their impact on foreign policy in Australia and South Korea

ABSTRACT This paper illustrates the analytical value of applying the notion of state tradition to foreign policy analysis. Whereas state tradition has often been discussed in a domestic context and in terms of the relationship between citizens and the state, foreign policy tends to be understood as the product of a state’s position within the international system. This paper proposes that a state tradition is best thought of as a set of ideas that are ‘invented’ for specific purposes, which makes it valuable for conducting critical and historically informed analysis of foreign policy. It demonstrates this analytical value by revisiting the responses of Australia and South Korea to the COVID-19 pandemic, and thereby reveals the operation of two varieties of state tradition and their understandings of the appropriate role of the state in domestic and international affairs.