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Western Norms And East Asian Norms

Posted on:2010-07-12Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:L T o l e n t i n o YiFull Text:PDF
GTID:2166360272999055Subject:World History
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
There is a renewed wave of thinking about norms in international relations. Mainstream scholars of neorealism and neoliberalism have placed much skepticism to the challenge posed by this constructivist thought. Much of the skepticism comes from the difficulty to define and operationalize1 (Desch 1998) constructivist variables such as norms. In recent years, however, more and more scholars recognize that"norms do indeed matter,"2 but how norms matter and what makes it matter in much of the norms literature are still puzzles left unresolved.In this thesis, I will argue that norms do matter because of leadership. Leadership, as defined by D. Rapkin, is necessary to"create/facilitate the international cooperation necessary to establish rule-based regimes".3 Based on this definition, we can imply that leadership is necessary to create some form of order to create cooperation, peace and stability in world politics.To assess how leadership works to make norms matter, this thesis will focus on East Asia. This paper will show the importance of leadership in the region by tracing it within the historical evolution of East Asian order. There are two regional powers that have shown or tried to initiate some form of leadership– the United States and China. But evidence will show that the leadership initiative outcomes of these two great powers vary widely. For example, before western incursions began in the region, power politics among states was not a common thread. Instead the norms of the tributary system prompted relative peace and stability in the region for 500 years. In order for the tributary system to work, China, being the central power, had to proveits leadership role and credibility in the region. And because of China's leadership, there was no need to balance against the central power, which made relative peace and stability possible in the region. This paper will compare how the United States and China showed their leadership and the effects of each leadership in globally and in the region. By comparing, this paper will find some theoretical implications of leadership to the contemporary East Asian norms and regional order.
Keywords/Search Tags:United States, China, asymmetry, size, norms, democracy
PDF Full Text Request
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