Hierarchy, Balancing, and Empirical Puzzles in Asian International Relations

Overview

David Kang’s spring 2003 article “Getting Asia Wrong: The Need for New Analytic Frameworks” is the subject of a commentary by Amitav Acharya of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Acharya praises Kang for challenging the pessimists’ view that Asia“is ripe for rivalry,” but questions his use of evidence in suggesting that Asian states are more likely to bandwagon with China than balance against it. In rebutting Acharya’s criticisms, Kang reemphasizes his view that in studying Asia, international relations scholarship should be less Eurocentric and consider more carefully the Asian empirical anomalies