Hierarchy and Great Power Cooperation in the East Asian Security Order

Adopting this volume�s aim of studying interstate cooperation through the lens of governance, this chapter examines the relationship between collective action problems and the creation of authority in regional security. Post-Cold War East Asia amply illustrates the complex process of power transition underway as US unipolarity strains under the twin pressures of American unilateralism and rising powers. This chapter argues that the global �power shift� finds most significant manifestation not in outbreaks of war, but rather in more subtle transitions of authority, as multiple actors try to sustain or challenge established authority, and as authority is diluted, diffused and differentiated. The impacts of such transitions of authority on collective action are complex, but this chapter takes a first cut at explaining how the ongoing transition impacts pathways to security cooperation in East Asia.