Regionalism and Globlization in East Asia: Politics, Security and Economic Development (2024)

Geopolitics and the making of regions: the fall and rise of East Asia

Political Studies, 2009

There is a good deal of scepticism about the prospects for regionalism in East Asia. There are, however, grounds for supposing that the outlook for regional integration in East Asia is brighter than it has ever been, partly as a consequence of the ‘rise of China’. This paper explains why an earlier attempt to integrate the region under Japanese imperialism failed, why US foreign policy has effectively foreclosed any possibility of East Asian integration up to now, and why it may be accelerating as a consequence of China’s growing economic and political impact on the region. To explain these different historical experiences I draw on a form of critical geopolitics, which has recently emerged in economic and political geography, and which can usefully be incorporated into international relations scholarship.

East Asian Regionalism and its Enemies in Three Epochs: Political Economy and Geopolitics, 16th to 21st Centuries

2019

Précis: This paper examines the dominant forces at play in East Asia in an effort to chart regional dynamics within a global non-Eurocentric framework in the course of three epochs.* In the first era, spanning the 16 to the early 19 century a China-centered tributary trade order provided a geopolitical framework within which private trade could also flourish. At its height in the 18 century, as East Asia linked to a wider regional and global economy, core areas achieved high levels of peace, prosperity and stability. The second period is notable for dislocation, war and radical transformation spanning the years 1840-1970. In this era profound transformations were the product of system disintegration, colonial rule, world wars, and anti-colonial wars and revolutions. With the collapse of the regional order, bilateral relations, colonial and postcolonial, predominated. Since the 1970s there have been signs of the emergence of a third epoch notable for progress toward the formation of ...

East Asian Regionalism: Perspectives, Realities and the Future

Since the start of the Association of South East Asian Nation (ASEAN) Plus Three (APT) initiative in 1997, East Asian regionalism seems to have progressed and an East Asian Community is just around the corner. In spite of all the pessimism brought about by the 1997 Asian financial crisis, East Asian political frameworks are in place, East Asian regional production networks are the most integrated in the world, and regional financial initiatives have taken off. From a financial integration, financial regulation, and education perspective, however, East Asian regionalism has either stagnated or even regressed. Furthermore, US re-engagement in the region and the increased tension over the South China seas tend to challenge further developments in East Asian regionalization outside of the economic space. This paper is a mini-scoping study to present the realities that East Asian regionalism is still lap-sided: economic regionalism is highly developed, while other key components (regional financial and financial regulation integration, education collaboration, and a regional political framework) are developing at a slower rate, stagnating, and/or regressing. It aims to present the reality of East Asian regionalism, provoke awareness of false perspectives, and present a recommendation towards a balanced and more sustainable East Asian regionalism and the formation of a real East Asian community.

Remapping East Asia: the construction of a region

Asian journal of social science, 2008

Short Paper #1 (Regionalism in East Asia: Why it has Flourished Since 200 and How Far will it Go? by Richard Pomfret

Regional Order in East Asia

Nation, Region and the Global in East Asia: Conflict and Cooperation 東アジアにおける国家、宗教、世界性−−対立と協力

2010

What Drives Regionalism in East Asia—And Why It Matters

MPI Studies on Intellectual Property and Competition Law, 2014

The Future of Asian Regionalism: Not What It Used to Be?

Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies, 2017

The largely unexpected election of Donald Trump as President of the United States has overturned many assumptions and expectations about the future of Australia's regional relationships. Even before Trump's election, however, the history of regional evolution in East Asia presented a number of striking paradoxes and raised important questions about the forces that encourage or obstruct integration and cooperation at the regional level. For a region that has frequently been associated with comparatively limited cross-border political institutionalization and development, East Asia has recently been the centre of a large number of initiatives and proposals that are intended to give expression to particular visions of the region. We argue that the outcome of such regional processes is profoundly influenced by both geo-economic and geopolitical forces. We illustrate this claim by looking at the history of institutional development in the 'Asia-Pacific', before considering the attempt to create a new 'Indo-Pacific region', which, we suggest, has more to do with contemporary geopolitical concerns rather than any underlying 'natural' coherence. The Australian policy-making community needs to think carefully about the implications of the Trump presidency for such initiatives.

Do InstItutIons Matter ? regIonal InstItutIons anD regIonalIsM In east asIa

2010