The long game

Despite South Koreans’ apparent nonchalance about the North, mental illness has reached epidemic levels.

- Dr Peter Grace

Would you be willing to give W up your freedom to be protected by the state? Philosopher Thomas Hobbes certainly thought so, and argued that is exactly the way society is structured. Living at a time when England was brutalised by civil war, he saw how the prioritising of safety might come before all other needs.

I am in Seoul this month, talking to policymakers and academics about engaging South Koreans in national security policymaking. The war with North Korea has been hanging over people's heads for 70 years. Twenty five million people live within range of the North's artillery. Even more frighteningly, Kim Jong-un regularly threatens the South with his nukes.

So, how close does Hobbes' model come to the South Korean experience? Quite close, actually. In the run-up to this year's presidential election, only 7% of people considered North Korea an issue, according to a poll.