From 'Japan Problem' to 'China Threat'?

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Part I

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Introduction

      • Nicola Nymalm

      Pages 3-26

   3. State of the Art and Key Concepts

      • Nicola Nymalm

      Pages 27-44

   4. Political Discourse Theory and Rhetorical Analysis: Fundamental Premises and Key Terms

      • Nicola Nymalm

      Pages 45-78

3. Part II

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 79-79

      PDF

   2. The US Congressional Discourse on Japan and China: Issues and Topics

      • Nicola Nymalm

      Pages 81-90

   3. Nomination and Predication: Initial Articulations of Self and Other

      • Nicola Nymalm

      Pages 91-96

   4. Argumentation on the Main Topics: The Trade Deficit and the Challenge to US World Leadership

      • Nicola Nymalm

      Pages 97-125

   5. Perspectivation on Japan and China: The USA as Victim of ‘Unfair’ and ‘Illiberal’ Policies

      • Nicola Nymalm

      Pages 127-148

   6. Intensification and Mitigation: Economic Warfare Versus Engagement

      • Nicola Nymalm

      Pages 149-186

   7. Conclusions

      • Nicola Nymalm

      Pages 187-192

4. Back Matter

   Pages 193-244

   PDF

This book has four main objectives: to bring the thus far almost entirely neglected historical case of ‘the rise of Japan’ into the literature on power shifts in general and ‘the rise of China’ in particular; to propose a discourse-based conceptualization of identity for the study of economic policy that engages theoretical and methodological debates on how to overcome the dichotomy between ‘ideational’ (identity) and ‘material’ (economic) factors; to address the tendency to focus on the ‘radical Other’ in poststructuralist IR scholarship, by highlighting how heterogeneity disturbs exclusive and binary articulations of identity and difference; and to propose a method for putting political discourse theory (PDT) into practice in empirical research by drawing on rhetorical political analysis (RPA). US congressional debates on economic policy on Japan and China in 1985–2008 are analysed as examples of official US elite public discourse. The book shows that the ‘new era’ in US-Chinese relations that scholars and policymakers have been announcing since the beginning of the Trump presidency was long in the making, as it rests on longstanding discourses on the USA’s main economic competitor.

• identity
• discourse
• economic warfare
• international relations
• global politics
• rising powers

'Nymalm’s book convincingly shows that both the “China threat” today and the “Japan problem” of the 1980s in the US economic discourses are reflective of a problem closer to home: those countries’ perceived economic threats to the US cannot be fully understood unless we also examine their origins in the ways the US constructs itself through American exceptionalism and the liberal theory of history. Providing much-needed insight into ongoing US-China tensions, this sophisticated, historically grounded analysis makes a timely and thoughtprovoking contribution to the burgeoning literature on great power competition.’ — Chengxin Pan, Associate Professor of International Relations, Deakin University, Australia


‘Nymalm insightfully challenges the usually bipolar discussions on identity and difference and operationalises poststructuralist discourse theory with rhetorical political analysis to connect US foreign policy discourse back to the rise of Japan andUS-Chinese economic relations.’

 —  Emilia Palonen, Senior Lecturer, Department of Political and Economic Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland

• Swedish Defence University, Stockholm, Sweden

  Nicola Nymalm

Nicola Nymalm is an Assistant Professor in War Studies at the Swedish Defence University and an Associate Research Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI) and the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA). Her previous work has appeared in journals such as International Political Sociology, International Studies Review, Journal of International Relations and Development and Cambridge Review of International Affairs.

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