International Relations In The Asymmetric World

Most international relations theories discuss which system is better to achieve peace and stability, how states protect and maximize national interests, what makes international cooperation possible, or why nations go to war. In developing their arguments, most theories share an assumption in common: the international political arena is anarchy. Under anarchical situations each state attempts to make an alliance to increase national interests and to pursue profits by either balancing or bandwagoning. In either case, if there is a great power it might play a central role in making an alliance for either balancing or bandwagoning. Further, even in theories explaining the structure and system of international relations and emphasizing the features of stability and order instead of instability and disorder, most scholars basically seem to agree on the importance of a central power as an essential means to keep interstate relations peaceful and stable. In sum, there is an agreement that great powers play a more critical role than lesser powers do and, as a result, the way great powers exercise their influence on the relations between themselves and others has been a primary concern in the field of international relationsThe purpose of this dissertation is to analyze international relations in East Asia and attempt to suggest a new theoretical framework, asymmetry, by criticizing contemporary international relations theories due to their limitations in offering appropriate and persuasive logics in explicating East Asia's dynamic international politics since China's reappearance. It is unquestionable that China has been a primary concern and raised arguable questions in the field of international relations by combining its highly rapid successful economic achievement with limited political reform. As a matter of fact, in reverse, China has tightly developed its ties with most surrounding countries, lessening fear and tension usually caused by the existence of insurmountable power in size, population, the military forces and economic potential. How can we explain the paradox that a new rapidly developing country has been successful in accommodating the external worries? The dissertation argues that most dominant international relations theories fail to work as a useful tool for East Asian experiences as they only and overly rely on the West's historical experience. Although they can in part infer East Asia's international relations on the basis of West-oriented worldview, the dissertation contends that in fact they are unlikely to analyze the main motives of political actors, independent states as sovereign entity, and therefore reach a conclusion that either overemphasizes the impact of growing material forces in China, eventually resulting in coming conflict with America, or overestimates the effect of expanding economic interdependence, at last becoming rising peace in the complicated webs of contemporary world economic configurations. Unlike those theories which have some difficulties in providing fundamental explanations of ongoing international relations in East Asia, an asymmetrical framework suggests a new and fresh alternative in the context of abundant analytic narratives. Even though the dissertation relies in its theoretical analysis mainly on historical narratives, it is an empirical theory rather than a normative theory because it provides an explanatory vehicle of why and how relatively stable international order among autonomic and independent political units in East Asian geographies could have survived. Because asymmetry in this thesis mainly concentrates on the leading role of a central power, China, in East Asia, the theory especially challenges the two main arguments that debate the rise and fall of great powers: hegemonic stability and hierarchy.This dissertation through a theory building process has four great contributions to contemporary international relations theories. First, it will clarify what makes norms work as they from in international relations. Second, it will prove how non-material factors by constructing credible leadership instead of material factors can play a great role in formulating an international order. Third, it will make a bridge to reduce a far-reaching gap between Sinology and political science which have competed the way of conducting China research. Fourth, it will also address the possibility of constructing a non-western international relations theory by investigating two comparative cases of typical asymmetric international relations within the configuration of regional context: East Asia and South America.