Introduction:locating Eastern Asia and the League in global international relations

Out of a total of 54 members of the League of Nations at its zenith, only China, Japan and Siam (Thailand) were located in Eastern Asia, an area that covers the sub-regions of what are conventionally known as East and Southeast Asia in academic discourse today. By focusing on their activities, this book contributes to two emerging trajectories of research: the deconstruction of the narrative of the League as little more than a grandiose experiment in cooperation between the great powers that failed with the catastrophe of World War II; and the growing interest in how actors beyond Europe and the United States shaped the evolution of the modern international system.