The TPP and Economic Hegemony: How the U.S. Uses Economic Secu-ritization to Shape the Architecture of the Asia-Pacific Region

Since the beginning of the 21st century, economic globalization has increased, intensifying geo-political competition and making economics an important instrument of strategic rivalry between states. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), as an agreement between Asia-Pacific countries, has been used by the United States to strengthen its influence over trade rules in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, as well as to control its allies and promote the concept of “economic securitization”. This article examines how the United States uses the Trans-Pacific Part-nership to expand its influence and analyzes the impact of this association on China and the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) using critical discourse analysis and regional security complex theory. Analysis of the materials of official publications and American media, in which America’s position is supported lexically and seman-tically in the communicative space, is presented. Conclusion dwells upon the fact that the sustainability of the future economic architecture of the Asia-Pacific region will depend on the ability of regional players to find a balance between competition and cooperation, avoiding excessive politicization of economic issues.