Sovereignty, identity, and power politics in inter-state policy coordination: Trade disputes and resolutions between the United States and Japan in semiconductors

The dissertation is a constructivist solution of a neorealist puzzle: an inter-state policy coordination struck through power politics that do not reflect the distribution of material capabilities. The dissertation sees the solution to the puzzle in power relations defined by identities of "sovereignty." It argues that if current power relations are defined not only by distribution of material capabilities, but also by identities of sovereignty such as "incomplete sovereignty (IS)" and "extended sovereignty (ES)," then the power politics between IS and ES do not necessarily reflect the changed distribution of material capabilities as long as the identities remain the same. The case study of U.S.-Japan trade disputes and resolutions in semiconductors seems to support the argument.