Logo: to the web site of the Swedish Defence University

South Korea dispatched troops to the Vietnam War in 1964 and to the Iraq War in 2003 upon the request of the US. The dispatch in 2003 is the largest since the dispatch of combat troops to the Vietnam War. Consid-ering the persistent threat of North Korea from 1950, it seemed unreasonable to dispatch which would lead to weakening of forces for territorial defense. By studying strategic culture, in particular, the concept of strategic shock, this thesis gained further insight and contributed to the understanding of the decision of the dispatch. The strategic shock for this research is the Korean War. This thesis used the multiple case study with pattern matching. The strategic culture which influenced the dispatch was operationalized into three elements. The author associated the two consequences of the Ko-rean War with the elements and applied an analytical framework to understand the cases. The thesis found that the elements which caused the decision of the dispatch originated from the conse-quences of the Korean War and discovered that the inertia of strategic culture had stemmed from strategic shock. The inertia has resistance to environmental changes. In addition to understanding the cases itself, through applying the theory of strategic culture to the cases of South Korea, a particular state in Asia, this thesis increased the applicability of the theory of strategic cul-ture and enhanced the academic value of the theory of strategic culture.