China, the United States, and the East Asian Security Order

Abstract

After the end of the Cold War, East Asia did not enter a period fraught with tension and conflict, but surprisingly maintained a relatively long period of peace. The existing literature on the East Asian security order mainly emphasizes structural or processual factors, but these approaches cannot provide an adequate explanation of the interior dynamics and mechanisms of the East Asian security order. The main reasons for the inherent instability in the current system are still unclear. In this paper, the author presents a functionalist explanation and argues that the United States and China`s separate provision of the two most important public goods-security expectations and economic benefit-laid the foundation for the current security order in East Asia. However, with the rise of China and the U.S. pivot toward Asia, supplying these two types of regional public goods becomes more difficult than it was previously, and this new scenario will cause instability in the existing order.