The New Geometry of Asian Architecture: What works and what does not

The general judgment of scholars and policy experts is that the United States-Japan alliance has been unsuccessful at thinking innovatively about architectural design and the role of China in Asia.  On the one hand, the United States, unlike China, has eschewed  any interest in the region’s various indigenous architectural efforts. Japan on the other hand is fully interested in regional architecture, but this enthusiasm is rejected by a region still suspicious of Japan’s past and future intentions.  American and Japanese inactivity is compounded by an underwhelming record of regional architecture initiatives in Asia – evident in the lack of an overarching security structure like that of NATO in Europe.  For these reasons, international relations and areas studies scholars have rushed to a judgment of failure in the U.S.-Japan alliance’s ability to think creatively and innovatively about regional architecture and about integrating China’s rise in Asia.    In this chapter, I argue that the future may not be as dim as people surmise.  There is a definitive architecture emerging and evolving in Asia that the United States and Japan both support.  It is not one dominated by China.  Nor is it one characterized by U.S. departure.  On the contrary this evolving architecture is inclusive of both powers.  But there is a clear security dilemma that needs to be overcome to realize this positive future for regional architecture.  This is one in which U.S./Japan-initiated regional efforts are seen as latent efforts to contain China, while regional/China-initiated proposals are seen as attempts to exclude the U.S.  Non-zero sum solutions are indeed possible.  The picture of the institutions that tie the U.S., Japan, and China in the region is much more complex than “bilateral v. multilateral.”  Instead, it is a combination of bilaterals, trilaterals, and other pluralateral configurations, and the complexity of the this geometry is a useful tool in muting regional security dilemmas.

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