ABSTRACT
Just as Buddhism enables internal activism, so Confucianism discourages external activism. The concept of patience gives rise to the temporal dimension largely overlooked in Western IR theories, which are more often anchored in spatiality. Global governance, for example, breeds interventionism that seeks to synchronize practices across borders. Supported by a liberal governmentality that treats sites as a simultaneously existing presence, global governance makes the external grafting of global institutions until domestic ones possible. Confucianism, by contrast, advocates a conservative, non-interventionist philosophy that emphasizes the construction of localized orders. It is open to accepting any type of functioning order, focusing more on the importance of (re)establishing order from chaos. In light of this, Chapter 6 unpacks the idea of Confucian governability, which brings into relief the notion that countries have a prior responsibility to wait, and contends that (over)emphasis on the responsibility to protect can be dangerous as it can hinder spontaneous, local forces of order restoration. Here, Confucian governability acknowledges the impossibility of a perpetual peace, but remains optimistic that order will continue to emerge from disorder through working as a legitimate partner within a relationship.
