Great powers relations and the changing regional order in East Asia: a liberal perspective

This article analyses great-power politics in East Asia from a liberal perspective. It begins by outlining the liberal tradition, which interprets international politics as a state system that offers opportunities and sets constraints on great powers and smaller ones alike. These insights are valuable considering the significant developments in the East Asian order in recent years, such as the waning commitment of the United States under Donald Trump to defend liberal values and the more assertive presence of China in the Xi Jinping era. Nonetheless, a defining feature of the past few years is that the region’s smaller states have resisted the notion of China becoming the leading state in East Asia and the Pacific. Smaller states such as Australia and the Republic of Korea have demonstrated their commitment to liberal values, and have exercised a degree of constraint on the region’s great powers. The region would welcome a recommitment of the US to the old liberal order, but this would also require a substantial reinvestment in the values underpinning that order, both domestically and internationally.