Economic co‐operation in the Asia Pacific: A theoretical comparison with the European Union1

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The European Union and the growing institutional co‐operation in the Asia Pacific merit comparison because they represent alternative paths to ‘regionalism’. In addition, greater insight into the nature of the co‐operative endeavour in the Asia Pacific might mitigate the misuse of the rhetoric of ‘bloc politics’ found in much of the defensive European, and American, literature. While the context of managing regional economic policy co‐ordination in an era of globalization is the same for both European and Asian actors, the geographical, historical, political and cultural contexts are sufficiently different to ensure different paths towards co‐operation. Thus the central theoretical argument of this article is twofold: first, that the emergence of a ‘third bloc’ in the Asia Pacific region is overstated by realist scholars of international political economy; second, and conversely, that the role of agency in international relations, as evinced by the discourse over regionalism in the Asia Pacific, is also stronger than much realist scholarship would concede. This argument is developed by looking first at the characteristics of economic co‐operation in the Asia Pacific to date. Second, the article explores some recent theoretical insights from the analysis of policy co‐ordination in the EU and the potential interest of these analyses for a better understanding of the processes in train in the Asia Pacific. In particular, the recent fashionable theorizing about liberal intergovernmental policy‐making may have more utility in an Asia Pacific than a European context.