30 Oct 2024 | Asst. Prof. Jaeyoung Kim | Seminar: The Rise and Fall of Status-Seekers: A View from Historical East Asia
Why do some status-seeking states rise while others fail to do so? Who rises or falls when the established international order undergoes a transition? Status-seeking has emerged as a flourishing avenue of research in international relations (IR). However, a general theory to explain the rise and fall of status-seeking states remains underdeveloped. To fill this gap, I propose a general theory to explain and compare the rise and fall of status-seekers. In particular, I focus on status-seeking during periods of international political change, when the interplay between international social structure and states becomes salient as structural constraints loosen up and the room for agency expands. I argue that if the strategies of status-seeking states align with changes in the international social structure where they are embedded, they can elevate their status. To examine the validity of my theory, I compare the status-seeking strategies of Korea and Japan and their outcomes during the Ming-Qing transition (1583-1683) and the Westphalian transition (1839-1912), two pivotal changes in historical East Asia.
The full description of the event will be provided in due course.
2024 GRADNAS Seminar Series
The GRADNAS Seminar Series in 2024 will showcase the emerging scholarship on the historical International Relations of Asia. There has been a “global” and a “historical” turn in International Relations scholarship in recent years. Scholars are increasingly looking at Asian history to enrich International Relations theory. What are the theoretical insights that emerge from studying Asian history? Does Asian history provide us with new concepts and new understandings of order? Does Asian history challenge the received metanarratives of International Relations theory? How were historical Asian polities connected with each other and with the world beyond Asia? Can the International Relations theoretical findings from Asian history shed light on other parts of the world? What, if anything, do these findings tell us about the emerging world order? Join us as we celebrate and showcase the excellent research by GRADNAS members and friends on the Historical International Relations of Asia.
The full description of the event will be provided in due course.