Why do wars start? How can we avoid them? Do countries wage wars whenever it suits their own goals? Or are wars a product of failed understanding and military madmen? 

These are questions at the centre of the study of war and peace. But for too long, the field of international relations has answered them by scavenging data from European history alone.   To better understand the human capacity for peace, we need to understand military history more broadly. 

Or so argues David C. Kang, a professor at the University of Southern California.

A Korean American scholar of international relations, Kang argues that the histories of China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam give us lessons that no reading of European countries could: lessons about neighbouring countries living in peace for centuries. Yes, there was violence. At times, there was war. But peace between these countries prevailed for stunningly long periods. And contrary to standard theories of war and peace, this wasn’t achieved by a “balance of powers”, nor by an inability to sustain military operations.

But is this too peaceful a picture of East Asian history? Didn’t China keep up bullying Vietnam? What about the epic wars started by Japan? What about the Mongols, the Great Wall, and China’s expansion on its Western frontier? And what, if anything, can this tell about war and peace in the 21st Century? Doesn’t the “Thucydides trap” make a war between the US and China inevitable?

We discuss these and many other questions in this fascinating episode.

I am particularly glad to bring you this episode as it brings together two of the major themes on the show this fall: the study of war and peace and the study of Asian history.

Co-hosting again was Jordan Schneider from ChinaTalk.

Check out also our “What About China” trilogy from September (episodes #44-36)!

LINKS

Kang's new book, co-authored with Xinru Ma, is Beyond Power Transitions.

You can read my essays and get the On Humans newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠OnHumans.Substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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MENTIONS

Books

Beyond Bronze Pillars by Liam Kelley

Technical terms

Thucydides trap | Westphalian system | Balance of powers | IR (=internationa relations) | keju civil service |

Keywords

War | Peace | International relations | China | Japan | Korea | Social science of war | History | Military history | Humanities | Vietnam | East Asia | Thucidides trap |