Contesting International Society in East Asia

Bringing together some of the most innovative scholars in both the English School of international relations and East Asian studies, this volume investigates whether or not significant and distinct international social structures exist at the regional level represented by 'East Asia', and what this can tell us about international society both regionally and globally. The book's main finding is that the regional dispute over how its states and peoples should relate to the Western-dominated global international society makes the existence of East Asian international society essentially contested. While this regional-global social dynamic is present in many regions, it is particularly strong in East Asia. This book will appeal to audiences interested in developing English School theory, the study of East Asian international relations and comparative regionalism.

1. Introduction: interrogating regional international society in East Asia Barry Buzan and Yongjin Zhang; 2. International societies in pre-modern East Asia: a preliminary framework Feng Zhang; 3. Imagining 'Asia': Japan and 'Asian' international society in modern history Shogo Suzuki; 4. An East Asian international society today? The cultural dimension David C. Kang; 5. Regional and global forces in East Asia's economic engagement with international society Mark Beeson and Shaun Breslin; 6. Outside-in and inside-out: political ideology, the English School and East Asia Alice D. Ba; 7. East Asia and the strategic 'deep rules' of international/regional society Yuen Foong Khong; 8. East Asia as regional international society: the problem of great power management Evelyn Goh; 9. Social boundaries in flux: secondary regional organizations as a reflection of regional international society Rosemary Foot; 10. Conclusion: the contest over East Asian international society Barry Buzan and Yongjin Zhang.

Barry Buzan is a Senior Fellow at LSE IDEAS, Emeritus Professor in the London School of Economics Department of International Relations and a Fellow of the British Academy. His books include International Systems in World History: Remaking the Study of International Relations (2000, with Richard Little), Regions and Powers: The Structure of International Security (2003, with Ole Wæver), From International to World Society? English School Theory and the Social Structure of Globalisation (Cambridge, 2004), Does China Matter? (2004, coedited with Rosemary Foot), The United States and the Great Powers: World Politics in the Twenty-First Century (2004), International Society and the Middle East: English School Theory at the Regional Level (2009, coedited with Ana Gonzalez-Pelaez), and Non-Western International Relations Theory (2010, coedited with Amitav Acharya).
Yongjin Zhang is Professor of International Politics at the University of Bristol. His main publications include China in the International System, 1918–1920: The Middle Kingdom at the Periphery (1991), China in International Society since 1949: Alienation and Beyond (1998), China's Emerging Global Businesses: Political Economy and Institutional Investigations (2003), Power and Responsibility in Chinese Foreign Policy (2001 and 2014, coedited with Greg Austin), and International Orders in the Early Modern World (2014, coedited with Shogo Suzuki and Joel Quirk). His articles have appeared in the European Journal of International Relations, Review of International Studies, the Australian Journal of International Affairs, the Chinese Journal of International Politics, China Journal, the Journal of Contemporary China, Asian Perspective, Development and Change and, most recently, International Affairs, among others. He is the winner of the BISA (British International Studies Association) prize for the best article published in Review of International Studies in 1991.