Are They Part Of “Us” Or The “Other”? A Discourse analysis examining how the U.S. perceives itself in East Asia region in relation to the disputes between two important allies: Japan and South Korea

Abstract: With the trilateral meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, and South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol in August 2023, a new chapter of cooperation between the three seems to be coming closer, with new possibilities of laying bilateral issues between Japan and South Korea to rest. But how does the U.S. perceive its allies? This essay analyses the discursive identities constructed in U.S. official foreign policy discourse on Japan and South Korea in relation to their bilateral disputes. In order to create a deeper understanding of U.S. self-perception, and to gain insight into how identities are created with regard to bilateral disputes built on a long history of animosity. This essay takes on a poststructural discourse analysis building on Lene Hansens (2006), understanding identity as relationally constituted, constructed through discourse. This essay analyses how discourse has been constructed through a spatial, temporal, and ethical lens from the first Obama administration (2009) to the current Biden administration to uncovered if there are any dominant discourse that are stable over time, or if they change more or less with every president. The analysis finds that there is a dominant discourse that can be seen though all the presidencies constructing South Korea and Japan as close to the core, building on shared values, democracy, the rule of law and strife for peace and prosperity. A more implicit discourse becoming clearer though every presidency is the friction between the U.S. and its ally’s inability of moving beyond their bilateral disputes, a discourse building on the perception of lack of maturity and commitment to the greater good.