The history and evolution of the military command architecture between the United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK, or South Korea) offer remarkable insight into core relationship dynamics within the US-ROK alliance that exist even today. At the start of the alliance, US policymakers conceived the command architecture as a means to institutionalize a starkly patron-client relationship with its smaller South Korean ally, including the nearly unilateral US operational control (OPCON) over the ROK military. However, it was not intended to remain this way. Both US and ROK officials saw the command architecture as following a specific evolutionary trajectory. What began as a unilateral, US-led arrangement evolved into a bilateral combined architecture that eventually moved toward the ROK taking the lead in its own defense.
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