Liberalism to Realism: Economic Interdependence on Political Relationship in Sino-Japanese Case

Abstract

This paper discussed the correlation between economic interdependence and political relationship through case studies on the Franco-German relationship and the Sino-Japanese relationship. First, the paper focused on analyzing the Franco-German relationship through liberal theories. The result shows that economic interdependence has an effect on countries political relations. Then, a counterargument to the Sino-Japanese case was presented to show that political relationships and economic interdependence are independent factors. Realism applied better in Sino-Japanese relations in the 21st century than liberal theories. This work has contributed to indicating that the economic theory of liberalism has flaws in scenarios outside of Europe. Also, economic interdependence and political relationship have been supported to be independent factors.