East Asia

Regionalism
(Ravenhill, 2009)

Markova Ansatasia A, 195 group

General Overview
The financial crisis and the origins of East Asia regionalism

ASEAN forty-plus year on

Ineffective functional cooperation

Institutionalizing the East Asia region

Has East Asia become more regionalized?

Conclusion
 End of the Cold War -> the
possibility of creating a regional
The financial intergovernmental institution

crisis & Rapid expansion of economic

ties between Northeast and
Origins of Southeast Asia following the G7
Plaza Agreement (1985)

East Asia The idea of creating an

regionalism exclusively East Asian group

Financial crises of 1997-1998

ASEAN forty-plus
year on
Controversy regarding the
effectiveness of ASEAN

4 "areas of accomplishment"
(Acharya, 2007)

ASEAN's central role in the

broader East Asian
integration process

Skepticism?
 Ineffective functional
cooperation
1993 2005 2015
ASEAN launched its Free Weaknesses in ASEAN Objectives: full
Trade Agreement institutional structure implementation of the
-> the need for change ASEAN Free Trade Area;
Limitations: lack of accelerate the
accuracy in terms of Establishment of the Eminent liberalization of trade in
commitments; frequent Persons Group (EPG); services; free flow of
changes in target dates for generating ideas for the investment
implementation; non- "ASEAN Charter"
compliance of members
with their commitments
Institutionalizing
the East Asia region
Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI)
-> agreement on mechanisms for
coordinating bilateral agreements
on currency swaps

Launch of the bond market

initiative (objective: to overcome
excessive dependence on bank
lending)

Challenges
 Most preferential agreements
Agreements with states outside
the region

Has East Asia The share of intra-regional trade

in total East Asian trade, after an

become initial surge from 1990 to 1995,

has not increased significantly
since then
more
Strong dependence on extra-
regionalized? regional markets for exports

Lack of trust within ASEAN ->

sense of regional identity???
The share of intra-regional trade in the total
volume of trade of the states of East Asia
Conclusion
New regionalism since the mid-1990s

Overcoming the negative effects of the financial crisis

through the diplomacy of the East Asia Vision Group
(positive institutional results)

BUT drawbacks of institutions established under ASEAN

Superficial nature of cooperation

The risk of creating inefficient "regional" institutions

(in comparison with non-regional partners)