US Imperialism and its Legacies in East Asia: Thucydides Trap or Thrasymachus Paradox?
Issued Date
2024-01-01
Resource Type
ISSN
16740750
eISSN
21982600
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85186247240
Journal Title
Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences
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SCOPUS
Bibliographic Citation
Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences (2024)
Suggested Citation
Maritan M. US Imperialism and its Legacies in East Asia: Thucydides Trap or Thrasymachus Paradox?. Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences (2024). doi:10.1007/s40647-024-00402-7 Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/97503
Title
US Imperialism and its Legacies in East Asia: Thucydides Trap or Thrasymachus Paradox?
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Abstract
The US presence in East Asia is not simply a result of the victory over Japan in WW2, but a legacy of the US takeover of the Spanish overseas empire in 1898. Today, the threat of war between China and the US has little to do with Allison’s Thucydides trap, which is based on a misreading of Thucydides’ work: It originates from what in China is seen as a US imperial presence that mirrors Western interference in Chinese affairs during the so-called “century of humiliation.” China is an authoritarian state with regional hegemonic ambitions, yet the West has been endorsing other authoritarian states, even absolute monarchies, that fit its geopolitical interests. Notwithstanding the purported US support of “freedom” and “democracy,” the US in East Asia has been carrying out a foreign policy that, as an extension of misinterpretations of the Monroe Doctrine, is a legacy of empire. This legacy is too often overlooked, while overseas interests are justified on the basis of security concerns. Thucydides is relevant, but to compare the American and Athenian empires and their demise, not to drag China into US geopolitical discourse, when focus should have long been on Russia. Anti-colonial theory shows how interstate relations, in particular in the East Asian context, are not defined by Thucydides trap, but Thrasymachus paradox.