East Asia and Liberal International Order: Hegemony, Balance, and Consent in the Shaping of East Asian Regional Order

Abstract

For over half a century, the United States has played a role in shaping order in East Asia. This East Asian order has been organized around “hard” bilateral security ties and “soft” multilateral groupings and American military and economic dominance, anchored in the US system of alliances with Japan, South Korea, and other partners across Asia. Over the decades, the United States found itself playing a hegemonic role in the region—providing security, underwriting stability, promoting open markets, and fostering alliance and political partnerships. In the background, the United States exported security and imported goods. Stability, prosperity, and security took hold. Today, this old order is giving way to something new, transformed by the rise of China, the shifting position of the United States, the normalization of Japan, the crisis on the Korean peninsula, and the emergence of old-style rivalry for great power and security competition.KeywordsUnited StatesGreat PowerLiberal DemocracyInternational OrderGlobal OrderThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.