A World of Regions: Asia and Europe in the American Imperium

320 Pages·2005·1.657 MB·English

by  Peter J. Katzenstein

a world of regions
A volume in the series
Cornell Studies in Political Economy
edited by Peter J. Katzenstein
A full list of titles in the series appears at the end of the book.
a world of regions
Asia and Europe in the American Imperium
peter j. katzenstein

cornell university press
Ithaca and London
Portions of this book have appeared in earlier versions in: Giovanni Arrighi, Takeshi
Hamashita, and Mark Selden, eds., The Resurgence of East Asia: 500, 150and 50Year
Perspectives(London: Routledge, 2003); Christopher Hemmer and Peter J. Katzen-
stein, “Why Is There No NATO in Asia? Collective Identity, Regionalism, and the
Origins of Multilateralism,” International Organization56, no. 3(Summer 2002): 575–
608, © 2002by the IO Foundation and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
Peter J. Katzenstein, Natasha Hamilton-Hart, Kozo Kato, and Ming Yue, Asian
Regionalism,Cornell East Asia Series no. 107(Ithaca: Cornell University East Asia
Program, 2000); Peter J. Katzenstein and Nobuo Okawara, “Japan, Asian-Pacific
Security, and the Case for Analytical Eclecticism,” International Security26, no. 3
(Winter 2001/02): 153–85, © 2001by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Thomas Risse-Kappen, ed., Bringing
Transnational Relations Back In(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995);J. J.
Suh, Peter J. Katzenstein, and Allen Carlson, eds., Rethinking Security in East Asia:
Identity, Power, and Efficiency(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004), © 2004by
the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Jr. University, all rights reserved; Kozo
Yamamura, ed., A Vision of a New Liberalism? Critical Essays on Murakami’s Anticlassical
Analysis(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997), © 1997by the Board of Trustees
of the Leland Stanford Jr. University, all rights reserved.
Copyright © 2005by Cornell University
First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2005
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof,
must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512East State Street,
Ithaca, New York 14850.
First published 2005by Cornell University Press
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Katzenstein, Peter J.
A world of regions : Asia and Europe in the American imperium / Peter J.
Katzenstein.
p. cm. — (Cornell studies in political economy)
Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8014-4359-6(cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8014-4359-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8014-7275-6(pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8014-7275-X (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. United States—Foreign relations—1989– 2. United States—Foreign

relations—1945–1989. 3. United States—Foreign relations—Asia. 4. Asia—
Foreign relations—United States. 5. United States—Foreign relations—Europe.
6. Europe—Foreign relations—United States. 7. World politics—1989–
8. World politics—1945–1989. 9. Regionalism—Political aspects.
10. International relations. I. Title. II. Series.
E840.K36 2005
327.73(cid:2)009—dc22
2005008838

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For Mary, Tai, and Suzanne

contents
Preface ix
Chapter One. American Power in World Politics 1
America and Regions 2
Globalization and Internationalization 13
Porous Regional Orders 21
Cases and Perspectives 36
Chapter Two. Regional Orders 43
Regional Politics, Present at the Creation 44
Ethnic Capitalism in Asian Market Networks 60
Law and Politics in a European Polity 69
Chapter Three. Regional Identities 76
Regional Identities in Asia and Europe 77
East and West 89
Germany and Japan 96

Chapter Four. Regional Orders in Economy and Security 104
Technology and Production Networks in Asia and Europe 106

External and Internal Security in Europe and Asia 125
Regional Orders in Asia and Europe 145
Chapter Five. Porous Regions and Culture 149

Cultural Diplomacy of Japan and Germany 150
Popular Culture in Asia and Europe 162
A Very Distant World—Closed Regions in the 1930s 174

Chapter Six. Linking Regions and Imperium 179
Connecting to the Center—Germany and Japan
in the American Imperium 179
Connecting to the Periphery—Subregionalism
in Europe and Asia 188
Two-Way Americanization 198
viii Contents
Chapter Seven. The American Imperium in a World of Regions 208
American Imperium 209
Porous Regions in Europe and Asia 217
The Americas 225
Extending the Argument to South Asia, Africa,
and the Middle East 234
Predicaments and Possibilities of Imperium 244
Bibliography 249
Index 287
preface
Years ago one of my Cornell students told me, “I am not interested in theo-
ries; I am interested in learning how the world works.” My answer to “how the
world works” is this: “Think of the world as regions organized by America’s im-
perium.” Although a growing number of scholars see merit in region-focused
work, this is still not the way students are taught in the United States. The typ-
ical international relations textbook bypasses regional considerations in favor
of extended discussions of analytical frameworks and abstract models.1Cross-
regional comparisons are also very rare in the most widely used texts in com-
parative politics.2 Regional comparison, linked to an analysis of the global
power and processes that connect them, offers a promising way to understand
“how the world works.”
Nuance is an important trait that distinguishes a regional perspective from
those who focus on states and empires, markets and globalization, civilizations
and world culture. The insights of proponents of state power and the signifi-
cance of empire for security issues are limited because they belittle new forces

that undercut the power of their favored constructs. The analyses of advocates
of market efficiency or the transformative power of globalization on socioeco-
nomic issues are wanting because they neglect the relevance of traditional
forms of domination. Analyses of civilizations and culture in world politics also

often lack nuance. Many of them create reifications to which they attribute a
false sense of geographic coherence and actorhood. Alternatively, others often

reduce world culture to a script that is decoupled from purposeful human ac-
tion. This book articulates a regional perspective that covers security, eco-
nomic, and cultural domains, one that remains sensitive to how cross-cutting
forces are experienced and deployed in different contexts.
1. E.g., Gordon et al. 2002.
2. Huber 2003.