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2. Asia from Colonialism to Culturalism
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
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Asia from Colonialism to Culturalism 37 Chapter Two Asia from Colonialism to Culturalism Bernd Martin INTRODUCTION This chapter builds on the observation that the past leaves a legacy, and that that legacy will influence contemporary security perceptions and security policies. This theme is always implicit, and often explicit, in the chapters that follow, for which this chapter serves as a historical introduction. However, the course of history is neither a progressive one as Westerners tend to believe, nor a cyclic one, as Asians under the influence of Buddhism tend to believe. It is rather a winding road, and those travelling it have difficulty detecting the turning points or most important milestones. Sometimes the past seems totally forgotten, no longer affecting politics. But with sudden changes in international affairs the national past can reemerge into view, be freshly interpreted, and even be deliberately molded to support a particular response to a security crisis. History, as constructivists warn us, is not a monolith but rather a quarry where the stones are chosen and shaped by policymakers for a political purpose.1 An example will illustrate the point and also lead the discussion to the body of this chapter. In the eyes of United States policymakers, the Pacific 02 Asian Security Ch 2.pm65 6/12/06, 2:36 PM 37 38 Bernd Martin countries have been an American sphere of influence, a U.S. security and economic “mare nostrum”, for almost 150 years.This outlook was challenged by the great European powers in the age of imperialism and was contested again by Asian leaders in the post-colonial era. Because of their Asian colonial heritage, British, French and Dutch historians often tend to glorify the colonial past, which in turn legitimated their governments’ later searches for privileges in the region.2 Contrariwise, Asian leaders find little virtue in the colonial past but reached back to pre-colonial kingdoms and cultures to underpin their authoritarian and nationalistic policies. THREE SCHOOLS OF SECURITY THINKING Considering these varying national perceptions, contemporary historians and political scientists have developed three schools of thinking about security that are applicable to East Asia.3 These have been foreshadowed also by the discussion in Chapter 1 of this book. The school of realism focuses on power-politics, a derivative of Bismarck’s “realpolitik”, to achieve security. European statesmen and historians, quite familiar with the continental record of permanent wars, have developed the idea of challenge and response or, in military terms, of attack and counter-attack, and also of threat and deterrence. In these concepts cultural differences or economic diversities count for little. The school of liberalism, however, sees security achieved by interdependencies created by economic exchange and diplomatic institution-building at regional and international levels. This is a very modern conception. In contrast, a third school is of older provenance. It may be termed culturalism, and it emphasizes the deep differences between cultures, religions and historical experiences, and therefore the need for bridges of mutual understanding as prerequisites to international security. Inasmuch as culturalism presupposes that different security perceptions and values spring from different cultures, it is analogous to the modern international relations school of constructivism.The doctrine of culturalism has been set forth by scholars and politicians from Asian countries with thousands of years of indigenous culture like China and Japan, sometimes in the guise of the “Asian values” assertion. At best culturalism can stabilize governments and give them self-confidence in their external dealings, thus enhancing security. But if exaggerated it can produce a clash of cultures and non-material disputes between governments not susceptible to rational mediation, thus reducing security. 02 Asian Security Ch 2.pm65 6/12/06, 2:36 PM 38 [52.23.231.207] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 16:22 GMT) Asia from Colonialism to Culturalism 39 ASIA: CONCEPTIONS AND LABELS The dimensions of Asia, like security perceptions, depend on viewpoint. A geographer might take Asia as stretching from Russia and Pakistan east through the Japanese and Indonesian archipelagos, encompassing India and Sri Lanka. The classical heartland theories, developed by the German geo-political theorist Karl Haushofer and taken up by Japanese scholars as reinforcing their notions of a Greater East Asia led by Japan, identified Asia with the Eurasian continental block from Gibraltar to Yokohama.4 Europe was associated but South- and Southeast Asian territories were neglected, and, in the inter-war period, were relegated to unimportance as colonial annexes of the great powers. In the colonial period the Japanese idea...