East Asia’s Power Shift: The Flaws and Hazards of the Debate and How to Avoid Them

Abstract

The widespread debate on an East Asian power shift is generally based on the crude notion that power and capability are interchangeable. We critique this view and offer the alternative that power is the capacity of actors and discourses to produce effectswhat we call relational and productive power, respectively. We also engage in a reflexive exercise by addressing the productive power of the power-shift debate itself, and emphasize the danger that this debate might enable the kind of realpolitik that it forebodes.

Contending Narratives of the International Order: US/Chinese Discursive Power and Its Effects on the UK

“…To Foucault (1972), discourses are constantly exploited by different groups of people to reinforce, contest, or subvert existing power-knowledge relations. Similarly, Linus Hagström and Björn Jerdén contend that power could be defined as the capacity of actors and discourses to produce effects (Hagström and Jerdén 2014;see also Morriss 2002). This interpretation of power is particularly useful in elucidating why the United States and China are using carefully crafted narratives of the international order to produce the effects on other actors that would serve their respective interests.…”

Understanding Power (Shift) in East Asia: The Sino-US Narrative Battle about Leadership in the South China Sea

“…Developments in the South China Sea are crucial for power and leadership in East Asia, as the region at the epicenter of the ongoing East Asian power conflict between the United States and China. This power shift has been seen as imminent for over two decades (Betts 1993(Betts -1994Friedberg 1993;Roy 1994), and it is generally accepted that there has been a redistribution of capabilities between the two countries, even if there are differences in opinions about the outcome of the power shift (Hagström and Jerden 2014). Arguing that the production of intersubjective social reality is fundamental for power analysis, this article analyzes the role and impact of narratives concern-ing the South China Sea conflicts and by extension the competition for power and leadership in the region and beyond.…”

Recognising Normative State Action in International Life

“…It has to be stated from the outset that unlike most of the current literature on power transition, these three books offer little critical reflection on the discursive and practical framing of the notion of power. Yet, while the conceptual underpinnings of the term remain unproblematised, all three of them offer important insights into the relationality of power relations (Hagström and Jerdén, 2014;Kavalski, 2014).…”