International Order in Historical East Asia: Tribute and Hierarchy Beyond Sinocentrism and Eurocentrism

2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Kang
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
International Order ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Sovereign Equality ◽  
The World ◽  
Western Experience

AbstractIR theorizing about international order has been profoundly, perhaps exclusively, shaped by the Western experiences of the Westphalian order and often assumes that the Western experience can be generalized to all orders. Recent scholarship on historical East Asian orders challenges these notions. The fundamental organizing principle in historical East Asia was hierarchy, not sovereign equality. The region was characterized by hegemony, not balance of power. This emerging research program has direct implications for enduring questions about the relative importance of cultural and material factors in both international orders and their influence on behavior—for describing and explaining patterns of war and peace across time and space, for understanding East Asia as a region made up of more than just China, and for more usefully comparing East Asia, Europe, and other regions of the world.

The Tribute System and the World Imagined in Early Modern East Asia

2021 ◽  
pp. 030582982110506
Author(s):  
Ji-Young Lee
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
East Asia ◽  
East Asian ◽  
International Order ◽  
Rightful Place ◽  
The World ◽  
Tribute System ◽  
International Systems ◽  
Oriented Approach

The field of international relations has long treated the Westphalian system and states in the territorial sovereign sense as the standard or ‘normal’ in IR. The World Imagined by Hendrik Spruyt boldly challenges this habit as the biases of our times and instead brings non-European historical international systems into their rightful place in our study of international order and international relations theorising more generally. Unpacking Spruyt’s discussion of ‘the East Asian interstate society’, the article argues that an in-depth examination of what is known as a ‘tribute system’ and early modern East Asian historical orders richly illuminates the book’s arguments on the heterogeneity and diversity of order-building practices. It also argues that from a practice-oriented approach, the experience of early modern East Asia presents a compelling case that legitimation holds the key to explaining order building processes at both the domestic and international levels, with legitimation at these two levels working in tandem.

East Asian Exceptionalism to Western Populism and Migration Crisis

2018 ◽  
pp. 196-210
Author(s):  
John Lie
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
East Asia ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Northeast Asia ◽  
Historical Account ◽  
World War ◽  
Post World War Ii ◽  
The World ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
And Migration

In the 2010s, the world is seemingly awash with waves of populism and anti-immigration movements. Yet virtually all discussions, owing to the prevailing Eurocentric perspective, bypass East Asia (more accurately, Northeast Asia) and the absence of strong populist or anti-immigration discourses or politics. This chapter presents a comparative and historical account of East Asian exceptionalism in the matter of migration crisis, especially given the West’s embrace of an insider-outsider dichotomy superseding the class- and nation-based divisions of the post–World War II era. The chapter also discusses some nascent articulations of Western-style populist discourses in Northeast Asia, and concludes with the potential for migration crisis in the region.

scholarly journals Towards the Institutionalization of Cosmopolitan Law-Making

2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 1141
Author(s):  
Yoshiaki Sato
Keyword(s):  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
East Asian ◽  
International Norms ◽  
The World ◽  
East Asian Community ◽  
Cosmopolitan Law ◽  
Original Concept ◽  
Law Making

The emergence of de facto cosmopolitan law-making activities, as well as the institutionalization of cosmopolitan law-making, is gradually changing the transnational legal landscape. This article explains the original concept of cosmopolitan law as it was first put forward by Immanuel Kant and describes how the emergence of de facto cosmopolitan law-making activities has resulted in the adoption of various treaties and international norms. It identifies the two types of institutionalization of cosmopolitan law-making as a hybrid of international and cosmopolitan law-making, and a purer version of cosmopolitan law-making. The article then argues that in order for cosmopolitan law-making to be recognized as legitimate, cosmopolitans must limit themselves to advisory roles and remain accountable to stakeholders around the world. The article concludes by discussing the proposed “Draft Charter of the East Asian Community” as an epoch-making proposal for regional integration in East Asia.

scholarly journals The Idea of the Anavatapta Lake in India and Its Adoption in East Asia

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 134
Author(s):  
Yang Gao
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Religion And Literature ◽  
The Core ◽  
The World ◽  
Human World ◽  
China And Japan ◽  
A Site ◽  
Geopolitical Discourse ◽  
Local Cultures

This article centers around the Anavatapta Lake. In East Asian pictorialization of worldview, Maps of Mt. Sumeru, which depict the mountain at the core of the world, are often paired with Maps of India, in which the Anavatapta Lake occupies a significant place. When the concept of the Anavatapta Lake was transmitted from India to China and Japan, it was understood through the lens of local cultures and ideologies, and the lake was envisioned as a site spatially connected to various places in China and Japan. As a result, the idea of the Indian lake located at the center of the human world helped China and Japan formulate their statuses and positions within the religious and geopolitical discourse of Buddhist cosmology. Through investigations of both pictorial and textual sources, this article explores the significance and place that the Anavatapta Lake occupied in East Asian religion and literature.

International Relations Theory and East Asian History: An Overview

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Kang
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
East Asia ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Asian History ◽  
Western Experience ◽  
International Systems

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.

scholarly journals CURRENT STATUS AND PROBLEMS OF THE CATCH STATISTICS ON ANGUILLID EEL FISHERY IN INDONESIA

2016 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoshi Honda ◽  
Dina Muthmainnah ◽  
Ni Komang Suryati ◽  
Dian Oktaviani ◽  
Somboon Siriraksophon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Commodity Chains ◽  
Indonesian Government ◽  
The World ◽  
Glass Eels ◽  
Catch Statistics ◽  
Yellow Eels

To compensate the decline of the populations of temperate anguillid eels, tropical anguillid eels become getting attention of East Asian eel market in recent years. Many eel farms have been established in Java Island to culture tropical anguillid eels intending to export the products to East Asia. Since eel farming is reliant on wild-caught anguillid eels such as glass eels, elvers and yellow eels, these eel seeds have been captured in various places in Indonesia. However, it is still unknown that how much of tropical anguillid eels are caught as seeds for eel farming. This study showed two different patterns of the commodity chains of eel seeds from both Sukabumi Regency and Bengkulu Province to the eel farms in Java Island. Official catch statistics on anguillid eels found in both Sukabumi Regency and Bengkulu Province were also analyzed on their features and problems underlied. Considering the sustainable use of anguillid eel resources and critical stances on exploitation of eel seeds from all over the world, the Indonesian government should take an immediate action for developing the national catch statistics on anguillid eel fishery as soon as possible.  

Industrial Transformation in the Developing World

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael T. Rock ◽  
David P. Angel
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Policy Integration ◽  
Industrial Growth ◽  
Industrial Transformation ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
Global Sustainability ◽  
The World

Grow first, clean up later' environmental strategies in the developing economies of East Asia pose a critical regional and global sustainability challenge in this area of continuing rapid urban-based industrial growth which is the most polluted region in the world. Using detailed case studies and rigorous empirical analyses Rock and Angel show that East Asian governments have found institutionally unique ways to overcome the sustainability challenge, thus proving an important antidote to those who argue that poor countries cannot afford to clean up their environment whilst their economies remain under-developed. The authors, leading experts in the field, demonstrate that low income economies outside East Asia can also use the same policy integration effectively.

scholarly journals Conceptual Fundamentals of Post-Westphalian International Relations

2020 ◽  
Vol 12(48) (4) ◽  
pp. 69-85
Author(s):  
Alla Kyrydon ◽  
Sergiy Troyan
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International System ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
International Order ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
Structure Changes ◽  
The World ◽  
The Cold War

Conceptual approaches to understanding the current stage of the evolution of international relations were put in place during the destruction of the bipolar world of the Cold War and the formation of new foundations of the world and international order. The distinctiveness of this process is that the collapse of the postwar system took place in peaceful conditions. Most often, two terms are used to describe the interconnectedness and interdependence of world politics after the fall of the Iron Curtain: the post-bipolar (post-westphalian) international system or international relations after the end of the Cold War. Two terms, post-bipolar international system and international relations after the end of the Cold War, have common features, which usually allows them to be used as synonyms and makes them the most popular when choosing a common comprehensive definition for the modern international relations. The collapse of the Soviet bloc and the global bipolar system put on the agenda issues that cannot be resolved within the traditional terms “poles,” “balance of power,” “configuration of the balance of power” etc. The world has entered a period of uncertainty and growing risks. the global international system is experiencing profound shocks associated with the transformation of its structure, changes in its interaction with the environment, which accordingly affects its regional and peripheral dimensions. In modern post-bipolar relations of shaky equilibrium, there is an obvious focus on the transformation of the world international order into a “post-American world” with the critical dynamics of relations between old and new actors at the global level. The question of the further evolution of the entire system of international relations in the post-bipolar world and the tendency of its transformation from a confrontational to a system of cooperation remains open.

What Can't be Said

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasuo Deguchi ◽  
Jay L. Garfield ◽  
Graham Priest ◽  
Robert H. Sharf
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
The World ◽  
Initial Survey

Paradox drives a good deal of philosophy in every tradition. In the Indian and Western traditions, there is a tendency among many (but not all) philosophers to run from contradiction and paradox. If and when a contradiction appears in a theory, it is regarded as a sure sign that something has gone amiss. This aversion to paradox commits them, knowingly or not, to the view that reality must be consistent. In East Asia, however, philosophers have reacted to paradox differently. Many East Asian philosophers—both in the Daoist and the Buddhist traditions—have openly embraced paradox. They have taken compelling arguments for contradictory positions to suggest that the world is—at least in some respects, and often in very deep respects—inconsistent, and that our best theories of the world will therefore be inconsistent. This book is an initial survey of the writings of some influential East Asian thinkers who were committed to paradox, and for good reason. Their acceptance of contradiction allowed them to develop important insights that evaded those who consider paradox out of bounds.

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