民主化如何影響一個國家對敵國政策的衝突合作程度在近年來是國際政治學者們關注的議題之一，本文的目的即在於針對臺灣與韓國的經驗作一探究與比較。本文認為，臺灣與韓國在1980年代晚期至1990年代初期開始民主轉型時，兩國對其各自的敵國（中國與北韓）都出現和平取向的政策，這是兩國領導人權衡當時內外環境後所作的理性決策結果。不過在民主轉型完成後的1990年代晚期到2007年為止，雙方在對敵國政策的方向上出現了不同的發展：臺灣逐漸出現挑戰中國的動作，而韓國則對北韓展現出更為友善的政策。本文以為，這主要是臺灣與韓國在經歷民主轉型的過程中，分別發展出不同的「認同政治」所導致的一個對外政策結果。

Scholars have paid attention to how a country’s democratization influences its policy toward its rival state. This article aims to compare Taiwan’s and South Korea’s experiences on this regard. Taiwan and Korea both turned conciliatory in their policies toward their arch rivals (i.e. China and North Korea respectively) as their democratic transition started in the late 1980s. This article argues this is a result of their leaders’ rational decision making under external and domestic challenges at the time. However, the two countries’ experiences were divergent from the late 1990s to 2007 after they completed democratic transitions: Taiwan’s China policy became increasingly confrontational while South Korea developed a friendly policy toward North Korea. This article claims this divergence resulted from the two countries’ different identity politics brought about by their democratic transitions.