Performing civilisational narratives in East Asia: Asian values, multiple modernities, and the politics of economic development

Abstract

This article aims to uncover the socially constructed normative foundation for the alternative East Asian economic development paradigm to neoliberalism in the context of civilisational politics. The question I seek to address is why East Asian states make value claims when promoting their alternative method of economic development. In addressing this question, I make two interrelated arguments. First, I argue that the politics of Asian values can be understood as another case of non-Western society's struggle to demonstrate multiple paths to modernity. Second, on a deeper level, I show that the discourse and narratives on Asian values is part of civilisation politics aimed to recalibrate the place of East Asia in a world consisting of the civilised and the uncivilised, a divide that still remains today in various forms following European expansion in the nineteenth century. In so doing, I shed light on the performative power of ‘the standard of civilisation’, which naturalises the temporal and sequential hierarchy of civilisational identities in world politics. On the basis of this article's findings, I draw out implications of a recalibrated East Asia for the ideas of hierarchy and progress in world politics.

‘A Force for Good’: The Narrative Construction of Ethical EU–Vietnam Trade Relations

“…In this regard, it has previously been argued that the EU's external economic actions are informed by the neoliberal free trade paradigm (Bollen et al ., 2016; De Ville and Siles‐Brügge, 2018; Jacobs, 2020), as well as by a ‘Eurocentric, modernist and colonial’ paradigm (Delputte and Orbie, 2020). In the context of EU‐East Asia relations, Lee (2020) argues that European narratives hold a clear civilizational dimension, upholding a performative ‘standard of civilization’ that points to a single route to modernity, thereby preventing the EU from recognizing the variety of existing modernities. We will now apply these insights to the case of EU–Vietnam trade relations.…”

“…The state of human rights in Vietnam contradicts core values in the Fundamental Charter of the EU and challenge the EU's ‘cultural universalism’ (Lee, 2020, p. 468). From the beginning of FTA negotiations, there was contention within the EU about the link between trade negotiations and ethical considerations like human rights, with several civil society organizations, MEPs and member states pushing for binding human rights clauses (Sicurelli, 2015).…”

“…Instead, Vietnam, including the regime, becomes a lesser evolved Other suffering from ‘underdevelopment’. This idea, critiqued by post‐development scholars (Kothari et al ., 2019), suggests a historical backwardness vis‐à‐vis more developed European cultures (Ziai, 2013; Lee, 2020). To help overcome this backwardness, policy solutions therefore entail good guidance from the EU through the trade agreements, as well as through complementary development programs, to adopt European norms such as ecological sustainability, equal opportunities, individual gender equality, pluralistic independent civil society, and so on.…”