8
East Asia, because this region has suffered from a kind of ‘identity conflict’ as will be seen in the
next section.
I do not view however that constructivism alone can give us a satisfactory answer to this
issue because the concept of a (regional) identity is empty without considering power relations or
the distribution of material capabilities among major players in the region. As will be seen in
what follows, power relations or the distribution of material capabilities have exerted a
considerable influence on the (re)construction of a regional identity.
Emerging Contested Regional Identities in Asia: East-Asianism vs. Asian-Pacificism
Since the 14
th
century, for almost 600 years many Asian countries had been under the
influence of the Chinese empire. This traditional Sino-centric regional order collapsed in the 19
th
century when China was replaced by Western imperial powers (especially the Great Britain). In
the early 20
th
century, Japan, which had succeeded in self-modernization in a fairly short time
(less than 50 years), arose as a new regional power and at the same time as a “member of the
imperialist club,” replacing China and Western powers in this region (Neary 2002, 18). Japanese-
centered regionalism under the motto of the ‘Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere’ was
defeated at the end of World War II by the United States that emerged to a new superpower in
world politics (Simone 2001, 378). During the Cold war era, many Asian states relied heavily
upon the economic and military support of the U.S. against the threat of communism. Even in the
post-Cold War era, it appears that the basic structure of the US-East Asian political-military
relationship has not altered. 100,000 American ground forces are still stationed in East Asia and
US-Japanese security arrangements are consolidated throughout the 1980s and 1990s. This
displays that the United States remains a dominant military power in Asia (Katzenstein 2000, 3).
It is noteworthy that Japan has emerged as a strategic partner of the U.S. in East Asia, acting
as a leading economic power in this region under the military auspices of the United States.
Along with this, there has been a growing role of Japan in ASEAN in the realms of trade, foreign
Convention