A Non-Western Attempt at Hegemony: Lessons from the Second-Generation Kyoto School for International Pluralism and Its Discontents

Abstract

Abstract In an age of relative Western decline, international relations (IR) scholars and practitioners can learn from Japan's attempt to re-envision world order in an earlier era of relative European decline. In both periods, an apparently pluralistic, relational ontology of IR has been articulated by East Asian thinkers. However, a closer examination of the philosophical underpinnings of these Confucian frames reveals a hierarchical, culturalist reasoning. Under conditions of heightened militarism, this tension can lead to another tension between pluralism in theory and universalism in practice. In the case of 1940s Japan, it informed and legitimized an exceptionalist mission civilisatrice and imperialistic expansion. The takeaway for our current age of “Western” decline and “non-Western” rise is that we must resist any utopian temptation emanating from any ethical system, not least Confucian hierarchical relationality, to say “we will save the world.”