Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T16:49:42.364Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

International Relations Theory and East Asian History: An Overview

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2016

David C. Kang
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Long understudied by mainstream international relations (IR) scholars, the East Asian historical experience provides an enormous wealth of patterns and findings, which promise to enrich our IR theoretical literature largely derived from and knowledgeable about the Western experience. The intellectual contributions of this emerging scholarship have the potential to influence some of the most central questions in international relations: the nature of the state, the formation of state preferences, and the interplay between material and ideational factors. Researching historical East Asia provides an opportunity to seek out genuine comparisons of international systems and their foundational components. This introduction surveys the field and sets out to frame debate and the intellectual terms of inquiry to assess progress and guide future research. Theoretically, the essays in this issue provide insights on the emerging literature on hierarchy in international relations, and move beyond simplistic assertions that power “matters” to explore the interplay of material and ideational causal factors. Methodologically, scholars are no longer treating all East Asian history as simply one case, while also becoming more careful to avoid selection bias by avoiding choosing selective evidence from the rich historical record. Collectively, the empirical cases discussed in this volume span centuries of history, include a wide variety of political actors across East Asia, and represent an exciting wave of new scholarship.

Keywords

IR theoryEast Asian historyhierarchybalance of powermethodologycase selection
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of East Asian Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 2: Special Issue: International Relations and East Asian History: Impact, Meaning, and Conceptualization , August 2013 , pp. 181 - 205
Copyright
Copyright © East Asia Institute 

References

Acharya, Amitav, and Buzan, Barry. 2009. Non-Western International Relations Theory: Perspectives On and Beyond Asia. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baldwin, David. 1989. The Paradoxes of Power. New York: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Barnett, Michael, and Duvall, Raymon. 2005. “Power in International Politics.” International Organization 59 (1): 39–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, David. 1975. Power, Influence, and Authority. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Brooks, Stephen, and Wohlforth, William. 2005. “Hard Times for Soft Balancing.” International Security 30 (1): 72–108.Google Scholar
Clark, Ian. 2009. “How Hierarchical Can International Society Be?” Manuscript, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, Wales.Google Scholar
Deudney, Daniel. 2007. Bounding Power: Republican Security Theory from the Polis to the Global Village. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Donnelly, Jack. 2006. “Sovereign Inequalities and Hierarchy in Anarchy.” European Journal of International Relations 12 (2): 138–170.Google Scholar
Eisenstadt, Shmuel N. 1982. “The Axial Age: The Emergence of Transcendental Visions and the Rise of Clerics.” European Journal of Sociology 23 (2): 294–314.Google Scholar
Elisseef, Vadime. 1963. “The Middle Empire, A Distant Empire, and Empire Without Neighbors.” Diogenes 42: 60–64.Google Scholar
Elman, Benjamin A., Duncan, John B., and Ooms, Herman, eds. 2002. Rethinking Confucianism: Past and Present in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Los Angeles: UCLA Asian Pacific Monograph Series.Google Scholar
Elman, Colin, Elman, Miriam, and Schroeder, Paul. 1995. “History vs. Neo-Realism: A Second Look.” International Security 20 (1): 182–195.Google Scholar
Fearon, James D. 1998. “Domestic Politics, Foreign Policy, and Theories of International Relations.” Annual Review of Political Science 1: 289–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fearon, James, and Wendt, Alexander. 2002. “Rationalism v. Constructivism: A Skeptical View.” In Handbook of International Relations, ed. Carlsnaes, Walter, Risse, Thomas, and Simmons, Beth, 52–72. London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Geddes, Barbara. 1990. “How the Cases You Choose Affect the Answers You Get: Selection Bias in Comparative Politics.” Political Analysis 2 (1): 131–150.Google Scholar
Goh, Evelyn. 2008. “Great Powers and Hierarchical Order in Southeast Asia: Analyzing Regional Security Strategies.” International Security 32 (3): 113–157.Google Scholar
Heginbotham, Eric, and Samuels, Richard. 1998. “Mercantile Realism and Japanese Foreign Policy.” International Security 22 (4): 178–203.Google Scholar
Hui, Victoria Tin-bor. 2004. “Toward a Dynamic Theory of International Politics: Insights from Comparing Ancient China and Early Modern Europe.” International Organization 58 (Winter): 175–205.Google Scholar
Hui, Victoria Tin-bor. 2005. War and State Formation in Ancient China and Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hui, Victoria Tin-bor. 2012. “Roundtable Discussion of Yuan-kang Wang's Harmony and War: Confucian Culture and Chinese Power Politics,” 4, No. 3 (October 15), www.issforum.org/2012/10/15/roundtable-on-wang-yuan-kang-hamony-and-war-confucian-culture-and-chinese-power-politics2011/.Google Scholar
Hurd, Ian. 1999. “Legitimacy and Authority in International Politics.” International Organization 53 (2): 379–408.Google Scholar
Hurrell, Andrew. 2008. On Global Order: Power, Values, and the Constitution on International Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hurrell, Andrew. 2009. “Rising Powers and the Question of Status in International Society.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association, New York, New York, February 15–18.Google Scholar
Ikenberry, John G. 2004. “Liberalism and Empire: Logics of Order in the American Unipolar Age.” Review of International Studies 30 (4): 609–630.Google Scholar
Ikenberry, John G., and Kupchan, Charles A. 1990. “Socialization and Hegemonic Power.” International Organization 44 (3): 283–315.Google Scholar
Johnston, Alastair Iain. 1998. Cultural Realism: Strategic Culture and Grand Strategy in Chinese History. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Johnston, Alastair Iain. 2007. Social States: China in International Relations, 1980–2000. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Johnston, Alastair Iain. 2012. “What (If Anything) Does East Asia Tell Us About International Relations Theory?” Annual Review of Political Science 15: 53–78.Google Scholar
Kang, David C. 2003. “Getting Asia Wrong: The Need for New Analytical Frameworks.” International Security 27 (4): 57–85.Google Scholar
Kang, David C. 2010a. East Asia Before the West: Five Centuries of Trade and Tribute. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Kang, David C. 2010b. “Hierarchy and Legitimacy in International Systems: The Tribute System in Early Modern East Asia.” Security Studies 19 (4): 591–622.Google Scholar
Kelley, Liam. 2005. Beyond the Bronze Pillars: Envoy Poetry and the Sino-Vietnamese Relationship. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Kelly, Robert. 2012. “A ‘Confucian Long Peace’ in Pre-Western East Asia?” European Journal of International Relations 18 (3): 1–24.Google Scholar
Krasner, Stephen. 1999. Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Lake, David. 2003. “The New Sovereignty in International Relations.” International Studies Review 5 (3): 303–323.Google Scholar
Lake, David. 2007. “Escape from the State of Nature: Authority and Hierarchy in World Politics.” International Security 32 (1): 47–79.Google Scholar
Lake, David. 2009. Hierarchy in International Relations. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Larsen, Kirk. 2012. “Roundtable Discussion of Yuan-kang Wang's Harmony and War: Confucian Culture and Chinese Power Politics,” 4, No. 3 (October 15), www.issforum.org/2012/10/15/roundtable-on-wang-yuan-kang-harmony-and-war-confucian-culture-and-chinese-power-politics2011/.Google Scholar
Layne, Christopher. 1993. “The Unipolar Illusion: Why New Great Powers Will Rise.” International Security 17 (4): 5–51.Google Scholar
Layne, Christopher. 2006. “The Unipolar Illusion Revisited: The Coming End of the United States' Unipolar Moment.” International Security 31 (2): 7–41.Google Scholar
Lebow, Richard Ned. 2008. A Cultural Theory of International Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Legro, Jeffrey, and Moravsick, Andrew. 1999. “Is Anybody Still a Realist?” International Security 24 (2): 5–56.Google Scholar
Levy, Jack. 2004 “What Do Great Powers Balance Against and When?” In Balance of Power: Theory and Practice in the 21st Century, ed. Paul, T. V., Wirtz, James J., and Fortmann, Michel, 29–51. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Mastanduno, Michael. 2005. “Hegemonic Order, September 11, and the Consequences of the Bush Revolution.” International Relations of the Asia Pacific 5 (2): 177–196.Google Scholar
Mearsheimer, John. 2001. The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Nexon, Daniel. 2009. “The Balance of Power in the Balance.” World Politics 61 (2): 330–359.Google Scholar
Nexon, Daniel. 2011. The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
O'Neill, Barry. 1999. Honor, Symbols, and War. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Paul, T. V. 2005. “Soft Balancing in the Age of U.S. Primacy.” International Security 30 (1): 46–71.Google Scholar
Perdue, Peter. 2005. China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perdue, Peter. 2012. “Roundtable Discussion of Yuan-kang Wang's Harmony and War: Confucian Culture and Chinese Power Politics,” 4, No. 3 (October 15), www.issforum.org/2012/10/15/roundtable-on-wang-yuan-kang-harmony-and-war-confucian-culture-and-chinese-power-politics2011/.Google Scholar
Philpott, Daniel. 2008. Revolutions in Sovereignty: How Ideas Shaped Modern International Relations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Powell, Robert. 1999. In the Shadow of Power: States and Strategies in International Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Powell, Robert. 2002. “Bargaining Theory and International Conflict.” Annual Review of Political Science 5: 1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roehrig, Terence. 2009. “North Korea and the Northern Limit Line.” North Korea Review 5 (1): 8–22.Google Scholar
Rossabi, Morris. 2011. “Review of East Asia Before the West: Five Centuries of Trade and Tribute by David Kang.” Political Science Quarterly 126 (3): 511–512, quoted in Hui, (2012).Google Scholar
Ruggie, John G. 1993. “Territoriality and Beyond: Problematizing Modernity in International Relations.” International Organization 47 (1): 139–174.Google Scholar
Schmid, Andre. 2007. “Tributary Relations and the Qing-Chosun Frontier on Mount Paektu.” In The Chinese State at the Borders, ed. Lary, Diana, 126–150. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.Google Scholar
Schroeder, Paul. 1994. “Historical Reality vs. Neo-Realist Theory.” International Security 19 (1): 108–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schweller, Randall. 1994. “Bandwagoning for Profit: Bringing the Revisionist State Back In.” International Security 19 (1): 72–107.Google Scholar
Schweller, Randall. 2004. “Unanswered Threats: A Neoclassical Realist Theory of Underbalancing.” International Security 29 (2): 159–201.Google Scholar
Sechser, Todd. 2010. “Goliath's Curse: Coercive Threats and Asymmetric Power.” International Organization 64 (4): 627–660.Google Scholar
Spruyt, Hendrik. 1994. The Sovereign State and Its Competitors. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Vasquez, John A. 1997. “The Realist Paradigm and Degenerative Versus Progressive Research Programs: An Appraisal of Neotraditional Research on Waltz's Balancing Proposition.” American Political Science Review 9 (4): 899–912.Google Scholar
Walt, Stephen. 1987. The Origins of Alliances. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Waltz, Kenneth. 1993. “The Emerging Structure of International Politics.” International Security 18 (2): 44–79.Google Scholar
Waltz, Kenneth. 1997. “Evaluating Theories.” American Political Science Review 91 (4): 913–917.Google Scholar
Wang, Yuan-kang. 2010. Harmony and War: Confucian Culture and Chinese Power Politics. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Wendt, Alexander. 1999. Social Theory of International Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wohlforth, William. 1999. “The Stability of a Unipolar World.” International Security 24 (1): 5–41.Google Scholar
Wohlforth, William. 2009. “Unipolarity, Status Competition, and Great-Power War.” World Politics 61 (1): 28–57.Google Scholar
Wohlforth, William, Little, Richard, Kaufman, Stuart J., Kang, David, Jones, Charles A., Hui, Vitoria Tin-bor, Eckstein, Arthur, Deudney, Daniel, and Brenner, William J. 2007. “Testing Balance-of-Power Theory in World History.” European Journal of International Relations 13 (2): 155–185.Google Scholar
Wohlforth, William, Little, Richard, Kaufman, Stuart J., Kang, David, Jones, Charles A., Hui, Vitoria Tin-bor, Eckstein, Arthur, Deudney, Daniel, and Brenner, William J. 2009. “A Comedy of Errors? A Reply to Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni.” European Journal of International Relations 15 (2): 381–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Womack, Brantly. 2010. China Among Unequals: Asymmetric Foreign Relationships in Asia. Singapore: World Scientific.Google Scholar
Woodside, Alexander. 2006. Lost Modernities: China, Vietnam, Korea, and the Hazards of World History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar