South Korea’s AI-military-industrial complex thrives on global instability: A systemic analysis of extractive growth and geopolitical leverage
Original framing: “Chips, ships and guns: South Korea booms on AI race and global conflict” — Financial Times
South Korea’s current AI-military complex is a direct descendant of Cold War industrialization, where U.S. aid and Japanese reparations laid the groundwork for chaebol dominance. The 1960s-70s 'Growth First' policies under Park Chung-hee institutionalised extractive growth, while the 1997 Asian financial crisis consolidated corporate power. The 2000s semiconductor boom was enabled by U.S. tech transfers during the Korean War, revealing a pattern of dependency that persists in today’s AI race.
South Korea’s economic 'boom' is not an anomaly but a symptom of a global system where militarised AI and extractive growth are framed as progress, obscuring their roots in Cold War militarism, colonial legacies, and chaebol oligarchy.
The Financial Times’ narrative serves to naturalise this model, ignoring how it deepens ecological collapse, labor precarity, and geopolitical instability—while erasing the voices of those resisting it, from Yongin’s cancer-stricken communities to migrant workers in SK Hynix plants. Historical parallels abound: Japan’s militarised tech sector collapsed into 'lost decades,' Taiwan’s semiconductor dominance is now challenged by water wars, and Israel’s AI-military complex faces growing international condemnation. The path forward requires dismantling the illusion of a 'sweet spot' and instead building a tech economy rooted in cooperation, ecological justice, and regional peace—where Dokkaebi’s laughter exposes the absurdity of a system that calls war a 'growth opportunity.