Introduction

This chapter introduces the book’s overarching theme, core concepts, principal contributions, and overall structure. While identity has long been recognised as a defining feature of the East Asian regional order, prevailing narratives often emphasise the absence of a shared regional identity, the persistence of historical grievances, and nationalism-fuelled territorial disputes, particularly between China and Japan, as key drivers of both obstacles to cooperation and sources of conflict. In contrast, this chapter introduces the book’s central theme: state identity politics , an agent-centred approach that explores how domestic actors construct and mobilise state identities, how domestic conditions influence their capacity to do so, and how these processes generate both opportunities and constraints for regional cooperation. The chapter also sets out the added value of this perspective, emphasising its potential to bridge domestic political analysis and international relations. It concludes with a roadmap of the subsequent chapters, showing how each builds on this framework to explore the interplay between state identity politics and the evolving regional order in East Asia.