Discourse, medical metaphor and the East Asian medicine approach to conflict resolution

Abstract

This article analyses how threats and dangers have been understood through biomedical metaphors in international relations (IR) and US security discourse, suggesting an alternative to such understandings based on an East Asian medicine (EAM) approach to world politics. By conducting a genealogical study of US security discourse, I argue that medical and disease metaphors, such as communism as a disease in the Cold War era and terrorism as a cancer in the post-Cold War period, were broadly utilised by US policymaking elites in the discursive formation of foreign and security policies. This delineated how the specific issues should be understood by ordinary people; it also suggested measures, such as containment, targeted killings, and surgical strikes, to tackle security threats. As real-world policy practices have demonstrated, the Westphalian understanding of security and conflict resolution, characterised by the utilisation of medical analogies and the necessity of coercive responses, may be inherently flawed. To address the security threats and maintain stability in a specific region, the EAM approach to world politics and conflict resolution is proposed, which is defined by non-coercive actions (wuwei); furthermore, transformability should be operated from within, and the yin–yang theory of harmonious relations could contribute to long-term peace.