What (If Anything) Does East Asia Tell Us About International Relations Theory?

Abstract

Transatlantic international relations (IR) theory has more or less neglected the international relations of East Asia. This relative neglect has come in different forms: excluding East Asian cases from analysis, including East Asian cases but miscoding or misunderstanding them, or including them but missing the fact that they do not confirm the main findings of the study. A review of the East Asia-related literature on three important clusters of theorizing-structural theories of conflict, institutional design and efficacy, and historical memory-suggests that this neglect of the region (and other regions) may come at a cost to transatlantic IR, not only in terms of data problems but also in terms of omitted or downplayed explanatory variables and theoretical arguments.

Re-conceptualizing China's rise as a global power: a neo-tributary perspective

“…While Johnston (2012) has questioned what (if anything) East Asia contributes to IR theory, it is arguable that historical ideas emerging from Chinese IR provide a complementary approach to understanding international power relations. Confucianism offers a philosophical perspective from which to understand 'harmonious hierarchy' power relationships (Smith 2012: 167), and 'Tianxia' (All under Heaven) is now part of a new vocabulary used to describe US hegemony (Pax Americana) (Khong 2013).…”

What Pivot? International Relations Scholarship and the Study of East Asia

“…Not surprising, far fewer articles that Friedberg (2005) provides an overview of each of the three major paradigms and how these different camps typically view the rise of China. 15 Johnston (2012) raises concerns, however, that quantitative data on East Asia may be coded incorrectly.…”

Central Eurasia and the New Great Game: Players, Moves, Outcomes, and Scholarship

“…Substantively, the emerging trends and linkages may require the adoption of new viewpoints in Asian-Pacific politics. 14 From an epistemological perspective, just like the Asia-Pacific has profoundly enriched IR theory, 15 great opportunities for theory building lie in Central Asia. Its dynamism and fluidity are an important source of research questions that are relevant to the discipline and the subfield and therefore deserve to be addressed through theorydriven explanations susceptible to illuminating more general phenomena.…”