Westphalian IR and Romance of the Three Kingdoms
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Romancing Westphalia: Westphalian IR and Romance of the Three Kingdoms L.H.M. LING* Abstract Introduction We need to re-envision international relations State violence in Asia invariably (IR). By framing world politics as a world-of- resurrects the West’s old saw about worlds comprised of multiple, interactive and 1 overlapping regional worlds, we can curb the “Oriental despotism”. Basically, it hegemony of the West through Westphalian IR accuses “Oriental” peoples of not and stem, if not transform, the “cartographic knowing how to govern themselves. anxieties” that still beset postcolonial states. Both They resort to acts of violence and of these provoke state violence externally and suppression whenever dissent arises, internally. This paper examines an East Asian regional world inflected by the 14th-century Eurocentrics claim, in contrast to the Chinese epic, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. enlightened, democratic processes of the Noting its conflicts as well as compatibilities West. It’s the same old story of the future with Westphalian IR, I conclude with the vs the past, modernity vs tradition, implications of this thought experiment for IR liberal-democracy vs authoritarianism. and for world politics in general. To Fukuyama, this realisation signals “the end of history”.2 They (“the Orient”) Key Words must learn to be more like us (“the West”). Accordingly, more education, Regional worlds, hegemony, conflict and compatibility, Westphalian IR, Romance of more supervision and, if necessary, more the Three Kingdoms. sanctions must follow. The West still rules. * L.H.M. Ling is Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs at the New School for Public Besides its inherent imperialism, this Engagement (NSPE) and Associate Professor Eurocentric critique sees only half the at the Milano School of International Affairs, picture. It fails to acknowledge a context Management, and Urban Policy, The New School, in New York City. I thank Chen Boyu, to the problem: that is, the international Kim Wookyung, Kim Youngwon, Thuy Do sources of state violence. Gourevitch first and Kay Yamaguchi for helping me with the raised this awareness in the late 1970s but cultural artifacts of Romance in East Asia today. Special thanks, also, to Tan Chung for his from an elite-structural, not a subaltern- insights on Romance. postcolonial, perspective.3 Palumbo-Liu 167 PERCEPTIONS, Spring 2014, Volume XIX, Number 1, pp. 167-181. L.H.M. Ling describes this analytical lack as “white of postcolonial mimicry). Indeed, state absence”.4 It accounts for why the elites and Eurocentrics alike benefit mainstream media in 1992, for example, from internalised imperialism. They can focused only on the conflict between seem actively taking charge and solving Koreans and blacks in the riots following problems without doing anything to the first Rodney King trial.5 That is, transform the situation. Meanwhile, “white absence” excuses from scrutiny ordinary citizens suffer. And Westphalia’s the white power structure in which both impact on world politics remains hidden, minority groups must fight for survival overlooked and untreated.8 and justice. Similarly, as C. Chen points Generations of leaders/thinkers in Asia out in his paper, we must understand the have tried alternatives. Strategies have current dispute between China and Japan ranged from state rejection (Qing China) over the Diaoyutai/ to assimilation Senkaku Islands By framing world politics as (imperial Japan) within the context to hybridity a world-of-worlds comprised of Westphalia’s (Nehru’s India). imposed inter-state of multiple, interactive and Ultimately, each system, defined and overlapping regional worlds, succumbed to larger, marked by territorial we can curb the hegemony of contextual forces.9 sovereignty. No such the West through Westphalian Strategies directed dispute had occurred IR and stem, if not transform, internationally have in the region for the “cartographic anxieties” that fared no better. millennia before this still beset postcolonial states. The 1955 Bandung historical imposition. Conference sought Indeed, Westphalia’s to neutralise Cold forced entry into world politics has left War rivalries between the US and the huge swathes of the globe dealing with Soviet Union with Afro-Asian-Caribbean “cartographic anxieties” that rationalise solidarity. In the 1970s, third world states state violence both externally and proposed a New International Economic internally, as Ahmed notes about Assam. Order (NIEO), reinforced by oil price Emasculated by Westphalia as the hikes from the Organisation of Petroleum degenerate, “sick” Oriental Other,6 state Exporting Countries (OPEC), to create elites feel compelled to proclaim to the a more equitable world economy for Westphalian Self: “We are man enough all. Each effort has dissipated despite to be just like you! We, too, can censor, its early promise. Seven years after jail, barricade and shoot”.7 (Eurocentrics Bandung, India and China warred over fail to appreciate the comprehensiveness borders drawn by former colonisers.10 168 Westphalian IR and Romance of the Three Kingdoms Today, the World Social Forum (WSF) this basis, we may stem, if not transform, champions global change for the Global Westphalia’s “cartographic anxieties”. South. Founded in 2001 and committed to the proposition that “another world is possible”, the WSF seeks to counter the As history attests, neither neoliberal, globalising interests of the domestic nor international World Economic Forum (WEF). The reform alone can shift latter represents the globe’s corporate, Westphalia’s hegemony. cultural and political elites, gathering annually in the posh, Swiss resort of Davos; whereas, the WSF convenes at Let’s try a thought experiment. I draw various locations in the Global South and a regional world for East Asia based on welcomes the subaltern, the exploited the 14th-century Chinese epic, Sanguo 11 12 and the oppressed. But is this enough? yanyi (Romance of the Three Kingdoms; We need to re-envision IR.13 As hereafter, Romance).18 The epic remains history attests, neither domestic nor popular today throughout the region, international reform alone can shift ranging from the vast Chinese mainland Westphalia’s hegemony. Instead, we need to Korea-Japan in the northeast and to align the “outside” with the “inside” Hong Kong-Taiwan-Singapore-Vietnam by anchoring both in a “regional world”. in the southeast. The epic tells of the Acharya defines a regional world as a competition between three states- “broader, inclusive, open, and interactive Shu, Wu and Wei- for supremacy dynamic of regions and regionalisms. “under heaven” (tianxia). The epic It is not just about how regions self- covers the chaos that followed the Han organize their economic, political and Dynasty’s decline (c. 169 AD) to the re- cultural space, but also about how they establishment of world-order under the relate to each other and shape global Jin Dynasty (c. 280 AD). Besides books,19 order”.14 Put differently, a regional world films20 and TV dramas,21 the novel stays represents a way of life and living through current through new social media such as time-honoured traditions shared by manga,22 anime,23 computer games24 and neighbours. This would globalise IR for internet discussions.25 As B. Chen notes an already globalised world-of-worlds.15 in his paper, the President of Taiwan cast Not only would we finally see and hear future relations with China in terms of from the “multiple worlds”16 that make the novel’s opening line: “Long divided, world politics but doing so would also the world will unite; long united, it will “provincialise”17 Westphalian IR as, fall apart” (“tianxia da shi, fen jiou bi he, simply, another regional world. From he jiou bi fen”). These words, along with 169 L.H.M. Ling the epic’s other phrases, episodes and to curb Hobbesian tendencies. And characters, echo throughout the region.26 Kantian friendship prefigures the rise I begin with Wendt’s “three cultures of of constructivist IR with its belief in anarchy” in Westphalian IR: Hobbesian the possibility of (collective) norms enmity, Lockean rivalry and Kantian subsuming (individual) self-interest; friendship.27 I juxtapose these with accordingly, states could resolve disputes comparable identities in Romance: self- without resort to violence knowing aggrandising enmity, negotiated rivalries that cooperation benefits all. “External and eternal brotherhood. I include norms”, Wendt writes on Kantian three other identities that also signify friendship, “have become a voice in our the epic: strategic genius, political heads telling us that we want to follow 30 trickster and ubiquitous narrator. (More them”. could be added but these are the main ones.) Here, I draw on the latest (2010) Hobbesian enmity, also noted televised version of Romance, titled Three as Machiavellian, evokes Kingdoms (Sanguo).28 I do so rather than draw directly from the novel to realist IR with the familiar underscore its currency in the popular characterisation of world imagination today within China and politics as an unrelenting “warre throughout the region. (The series also of all against all”. mirrors the novel closely).29 I conclude with the implications of a Romance- inflected regional world for globalising Wendt bases these cultures on IR. individual (Western) psychology. Hobbesian/Machiavellian enmity, Enemy, Rival, Friend for instance, asserts a self-interested, competitive and murderous individual in To Wendt, only three ideal-type the State of Nature now coded for