In a series of articles, Dr. Clint Work, explores each of the key variables that have shaped the policy process around wartime operational control (OPCON) transition and how they have aligned or clashed with one another to either advance or complicate — if not outright delay — the policy.

This first article in the series — split into two parts — explores one of the more consequential if difficult to measure variables, namely, the “control rod” logic.

Read Pt. 1

As it has for decades, the South Korea-U.S. alliance must grapple with the inherently contradictory distortions of the control rod logic, including policy drift, divergence in the understanding and practice of deterrence within the alliance, and allied free riding alongside U.S.-imposed dependency. Read the second article in the series here.

Read Pt. 2