East Asia in the American Empire of Capital

This paper presents a position against the 'declinist' school, arguing that many of the fundamental structural features of American power, as institutionalized after the Second World War and reorganized after the 'crisis of hegemony' in the 1970s, are still in tact. It further develops the notion 'empire of capital' developed by Ellen Meiksins Wood in order to critique both Neo-Gramscian and World-Systems notions of hegemony, while also critiquing other schools of international thought such as neo-realism and liberalism. In the context, it focuses on flushing out the concrete history and details of, first, how the American empire of capital has continually been renewed as a reaction to both domestic pressures and, drawing in many respects from a World-Systems perspective, as world capitalism has changed, altering the strategies of the US state to maintain its position of global dominance. Specifically, it discusses the ways that East Asian capitalism, now the most dynamic center of world accumulation, has historically been incorporated into the American empire. Finally, it discusses the contemporary geopolitical position of China; arguing that world politics are characterized by a tension between the US and China as, on one hand, China builds new connections with states in Central Asia, Latin America, Africa, etc. and, at the same time, particularly since joining the WTO, China has become more deeply integrated in and dependent on the American empire of capital. It will also discuss the recent push of the United States to re-orient its foreign policy strategy from the Middle- East to East Asia as the US attempts to counter-balance the rising power of China by playing regional political tensions against each other.