This book asks whether a regional international society exists in East Asia and why its existence matters to both regional and global orders.

1. Introduction: interrogating regional international society in East Asia Barry Buzan and Yongjin Zhang; 2. International societies in pre-modern East Asia: a preliminary framework Feng Zhang; 3. Imagining 'Asia': Japan and 'Asian' international society in modern history Shogo Suzuki; 4. An East Asian international society today? The cultural dimension David C. Kang; 5. Regional and global forces in East Asia's economic engagement with international society Mark Beeson and Shaun Breslin; 6. Outside-in and inside-out: political ideology, the English School and East Asia Alice D. Ba; 7. East Asia and the strategic 'deep rules' of international/regional society Yuen Foong Khong; 8. East Asia as regional international society: the problem of great power management Evelyn Goh; 9. Social boundaries in flux: secondary regional organizations as a reflection of regional international society Rosemary Foot; 10. Conclusion: the contest over East Asian international society Barry Buzan and Yongjin Zhang.