The Evolution of East Asian Regionalism

For a region that is synonymous with difference and diversity, it is remarkable that any progress towards formal regional institutionalization should have taken place. After all, regionalism is associated with the self-conscious pursuit of political co-operation and co-ordination, something that the region’s often traumatic history and the rather obsessive preoccupation with national sovereignty would seem to preclude. And yet this is the reality: not only is Southeast Asia home to one of the most enduring inter-governmental organizations outside Europe — ASEAN — but the region as a whole has displayed a much greater interest in the possibility of developing a wider, more ambitious and inclusive East Asian institutional architecture than history might lead us to expect. Indeed, until relatively recently, it looked as though East Asian regionalism was an idea whose time had finally come. Now, however, such prospects look rather less certain, and there is a renewed contest to define the very boundaries of the region.