Sovereignty and Suzerainty: A Comparative Analysis of the Constituent Normative Principles in Westphalian and Sinocentric Tributary Orders

This doctoral project asks whether constitutive norms in international orders generate path dependencies that determine durability, and whether different normative architectures produce different patterns of resilience. It compares two radically divergent orders: the Westphalian Order (1648–present), grounded in horizontal sovereignty, and the Sinocentric Tributary Order (c.1368–1895), grounded in vertical suzerainty. Situated at the intersection of International Normative Theory and comparative historical sociology, the project hypothesizes that both achieved long-term durability through different mechanisms—legal-juridical in Westphalia, ritual-moral in the Tributary—while experiencing analogous legitimation crises when norms lost adaptive capacity. Using Comparative Historical Analysis with primary sources from both traditions, the study challenges Eurocentrism, historicizes normativity, and bridges IR and Sinology. At a moment when Westphalia faces systemic crisis, understanding the full range of normatively viable international orders is an urgent task.