Understanding trans-Pacific interactions: The liberal inter-imperial order in the "Pacific" region, 1920-1960

Abstract

This chapter proposes the new notion/term, the liberal inter-imperial order' to understand the nature of the regional order of what we now call Asia and the Pacific region in the inter-war period. It questions some of the key concepts which I see had long defined and limited the intellectual spaces for scholars of US-Japan and other trans-Pacific relations in this period, especially the national-international binary, 'liberalism', and the term for the region itself, and hopes that this new notion/term would allow us to examine previously neglected actors and dynamics across diverse polities in the region, and have broader and deeper understanding of the regional order (and beyond) in the age of empire and communist revolution. Show more