This book shows how historical experiences have affected East Asian security debates, as reflected in enduring concerns with sovereign autonomy.

This book asks whether a regional international society exists in East Asia and why its existence matters to both regional and global orders.

This book provides a sweeping overview of East Asian international relations in history from the nineteenth century onwards, with a focus on Korea and its relationship with East Asia and the USA. In contrast with many books which concentrate exclusively on the twentieth century, this book offers a long-term perspective on modernity and modernization in East Asia. It addresses the tributary system, the Meiji Restoration, Japanese imperialism in East Asia, and the Cold War in East Asia. It also incorporates the First and Second Indochina Wars from Vietnam's perspective and expands the geographical scope of East Asia beyond the traditional framework of Korea, Japan, and China. The book begins with the tributary system as a starting point of East Asian modernity in contrast to the old view that the tributary system was not a "modern" system. It rejects the idea that Japan was modernizing while Korea remained stagnant and shows why Japanese colonialism continues to be controversial and problematic. Through the book's emphasis on Vietnam's perspective of the Indochina Wars, it places much value on nationalism, anti-imperialism, and decolonization as forces of modernity and modernization. Relevant to scholars and students in history, international relations, and East Asian studies more broadly, the book brings with it a novel, fresh and innovative approach to East Asian history.

While, over the last 30 years, the global economy's center of gravity has shifted to East Asia, the region has remained surprisingly free of interstate military conflict. Yet this era of peace and growth has been punctuated by periodic reminders of enduring security problems in the region—from China's military modernization, to unresolved territorial disputes, to persistent tensions on the Korean peninsula. This volume is one of the first to treat these issues of economics and security as interconnected rather than separate. Its authors—leading scholars from the U.S. and China—shed new light on this important nexus by applying insights from a rich variety of approaches to explore and explain the dynamics of a region whose importance for students of both international political economy and international security has grown dramatically. They show that both economic and security 'fundamentals' matter if one is to understand the reasons for, and evaluate the durability of, East Asia's recent peace and prosperity.

This book looks at East Asian actors in the League of Nations to explore a pivotal moment in the early stage of the development of global international relations. It breaks new ground by drawing on extensive sources in East Asian languages to show how actors from the region played significant roles in shaping the emerging norms and practices that underpin the international system. The chapters cover cases from the three East Asian member states, namely China, Japan and Siam (Thailand) to address topics that involve the intersection of disciplinary fields, such as law and warfare, sovereignty and international organization, and public health and international co-operation. The research draws on new material that will be of interest to academic researchers and is presented in a style suitable for teaching at undergraduate and graduate levels, especially for courses that strive to achieve a global outlook and the decolonization of the curriculum.

David C. Kang’s China Rising is a fine example of an author making use of creative thinking skills to reach a conclusion that flies in the face of traditional thinking. The conventional view that the book opposed, known in international relations as ‘realism,’ was that the rise of any new global power results in global or regional instability. As such, China’s development as a world economic powerhouse worried mainstream western geopolitical scholars, whose concerns were based on the realist assumption that individual countries will inevitably compete for dominance. Evaluating these arguments, and finding both their relevance and adequacy wanting, Kang instead turned traditional thinking on its head by looking at Asian history without preconceptions, and with analytical open-mindedness. Producing several novel explanations for existing evidence, Kang concludes that China’s neighbors do not want to compete with it in the way that realist interpretations predict. Rather than creating instability by jockeying for position, he argues, surrounding countries are happy for China to be acknowledged as a leader, believing that its dominant position will stabilize Asia, and give the whole region more of a hand in international relations. ¶Though critics have taken issue with Kang’s conclusions, his paradigm-shifting approach is nevertheless an excellent example of developing fresh new conclusions through creative thinking.