![]() Such an exercise illustrates how a presumably weak power can rely on both shared prior relations and improvisation in role making to oblige reciprocal responses from strong powers. I will describe the processes of Kim's role making/taking with three other heads of state – Moon Jae-in in South Korea (hereafter SK), Donald Trump in the United States, and Xi Jinping in China – through the lens of Confucian IR. To illustrate the value of a composite agenda of relations and roles, I will use Kim Jong-un of North Korea (hereafter NK) as an example. I will first discuss the Confucian ‘state of nature’ and its sensibilities to strangers, compare it with the social contract tradition, and introduce the Confucian style of relations and roles. I mention gift giving and ritual/name-bestowing as two ways to explore and reproduce mutually agreeable roles in the Confucian relation. This is where role theory contributes to the study of Confucian relations. In contrast to relating by consensual rights and laws of nature, the Confucian relational theory of Tianxia (literally ‘all-under-heaven’), which argues that all living things are bound to be related without deriving a consensus on who/what they are, obliges all to improvise in order to fulfill the mandate of being related. ![]() In so doing, the resemblance denotes the prior relation, which obliges all to incorporate it into their self-identities and, hence, connects them. In the state of nature, a shared resemblance, in terms of the rights and laws of nature, constitutes all actors. Western IR and Confucian IR represent two styles of prior relations – the state of nature and Tianxia – and two styles of improvised relations – an interactive process that socialises alters into like members and that establishes the parameters of mutual acceptance regardless of the differences between actors. I argue that role making and role taking according to these types of relations can reveal how the two seemingly irreconcilable IR universes interact and coexist. In my comparison, both Confucian IR and Western IR have prior as well as improvised relations, similarly aimed at dealing with estrangement between actors. Different cultural preparations for these two relations partially explain plurality in the IR universe. With the support of role theory, my comparative analysis of IR universe mainly focuses on two different types of relations: prior rule-based relations and improvised relations. This article uses role theory to bridge the gap between Confucian and Western conceptions of International Relations (IR). Confucian relations propose that, for all nations, the necessity of having a certain role relation is a more important agenda than insisting on exactly what role to take. To illustrate the value of a composite agenda of relational theory and role theory, the article will use Kim Jong-un of North Korea as its case. ![]() Role theory is one way to reconnect the seemingly irreconcilable relational universes. The differences in the cultural preparation for these two relations partially explain the plurality of the relational universe and the perception of stranger. With the support of role theory, the comparative analysis of relationality in this article has mainly focused on two different types of relations: prior rule-based relations and improvised relations. This article uses role theory to bridge the gap between the Confucian and Western conceptions of relationality, whose practitioners regard each other as strangers. The literature on International Relations theory has yet to align relational theory with role theory, despite the fact that these two theories share so much epistemological common ground. ![]()
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