The Struggle for Order

Hegemony, Hierarchy, and Transition in Post-Cold War East Asia

Evelyn Goh

The paperback edition contains a new Preface
A major new analysis of international relations in East Asia
Comprehensive survey of post-Cold War strategic debates and development
Combines theory and concepts with empirical analysis to enable coherent understanding

The Struggle for Order

Hegemony, Hierarchy, and Transition in Post-Cold War East Asia

Evelyn Goh

Description

How has world order changed since the Cold War ended? Do we live in an age of American empire, or is global power shifting to the East with the rise of China? Arguing that existing ideas about balance of power and power transition are inadequate, this book gives an innovative reinterpretation of the changing nature of U.S. power, focused on the 'order transition' in East Asia.

Hegemonic power is based on both coercion and consent, and hegemony is crucially underpinned by shared norms and values. Thus hegemons must constantly legitimize their unequal power to other states. In periods of strategic change, the most important political dynamics centre on this bargaining process, conceived here as the negotiation of a social compact. This book studies the re-negotiation of this consensual compact between the U.S., China, and other states in post-Cold War East Asia. It analyses institutional bargains to constrain and justify power; attempts to re-define the relationship between a regional community and the global economic order; the evolution of great power authority in regional conflict management, and the salience of competing justice claims in memory disputes. It finds that U.S. hegemony has been established in East Asia after the Cold War mainly because of the complicity of key regional states. But the new social compact also makes room for rising powers and satisfies smaller states' insecurities. The book controversially proposes that the East Asian order is multi-tiered and hierarchical, led by the U.S. but incorporating China, Japan, and other states in the layers below it.

The Struggle for Order

Hegemony, Hierarchy, and Transition in Post-Cold War East Asia

Evelyn Goh

1. Introduction: Order Transition in East Asia
2. Institutional Bargains: Taming and Legitimising Unequal Power
3. Authority and Public Goods Provision: Managing Regional Conflicts
4. Regionalism and Community: Re-negotiating Regional and Global Economic Order
5. Order and Justice: Contesting the Collective Memory Regime
6. Conclusion: The Hierarchical East Asian Order

The Struggle for Order

Hegemony, Hierarchy, and Transition in Post-Cold War East Asia

Evelyn Goh

Author Information

Evelyn Goh is Reader in International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London and Research Associate at the Centre for International Studies, University of Oxford.

The Struggle for Order

Hegemony, Hierarchy, and Transition in Post-Cold War East Asia

Evelyn Goh

Reviews and Awards

"Evelyn Goh masterfully shows that the changes in East Asia are not a challenge to American hegemony, but rather a renegotiation of how China, and other East Asian countries interact with and live under American hegemony. Explaining this regional order requires understanding how other countries in the region view themselves and the great powers. Moving far beyond sterile debates about the balance of power or economic interdependence, The Struggle for Order represents one of the most sophisticated accounts of East Asian international relations to appear in recent years. An essential book for anyone wishing to understand how this important region is changing."--David Kang, University of Southern California

"A pre-eminent regional specialist here provides a highly innovative international society account of the order transition underway in East Asia. Goh's sophisticated ideational framework, developed around a renegotiated social compact, compellingly displaces existing power transition models."--Ian Clark, Aberystwyth University

"The Struggle for Order stands out from the crowd of books on East Asia and China's rise. Goh brilliantly combines international relations theory and peerless regional knowledge to present a new way of thinking about the East Asian order. It will challenge if not transform how you think about China's rise and the United States' role in this crucial region."--William Wohlforth, Dartmouth College

"Evelyn Goh has written a first-rate analysis of East Asian international relations that eschews the theoretical tribalism of academic international relations and the facile futurism of the journalist and pundit worlds. The focus of this very theoretically and empirically rich study is on the practices of East Asian states as they try to preserve security and growth in the face of a growing US-China rivalry and deepening economic interdependence. As Goh points out, the calculations of regional actors in the face of China's rise and American resilience are complex as they try to build a "social compact" where the extant hierarchy of power and authority is legitimized but also tempered by restraint. This makes for an excellent read."--Alastair Iain Johnston, Harvard University

"Well-written and cogently argued, The Struggle for Order is a valuable and timely contribution to the literature on Sino-U.S. great power relations and the changing dynamics of East Asia. The depth of empirical understanding and scope of theoretical innovation demonstrated by Goh in this volume is exemplary." - Pichamon Yeophantong, Princeton University, Asian Politics and Policy