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New Asian Regionalism and the United States: Constructing Regional Identity and Interest in the Politics of Inclusion and Exclusion
Author(s) -
Kim Sunhyuk,
Lee Yong Wook
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
pacific focus
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.172
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1976-5118
pISSN - 1225-4657
DOI - 10.1111/j.1976-5118.2004.tb00190.x
Subject(s) - regionalism (politics) , political science , asian values , politics , development economics , political economy , warrant , economics , law , financial economics , democracy
In the wake of the Asian economic crisis during 1997–1998, an important debate surfaced in the field of Asian regionalism. The debate, still unsettled and ongoing, centers around the following two questions: 1) comparing the pre‐crisis and post‐crisis periods, are there any significant changes in Asian regionalism to warrant the coinage of the term “new” Asian regionalism? and 2) if “new” Asian regionalism is real, what are its central features? Regarding the first question, we argue that a new regionalism has indeed emerged in Asia in the aftermath of the Asian economic crisis. There is a noticeable degree of discontinuity between the old regionalism before the crisis and the new regionalism after the crisis. As regards the second question, we maintain that one of the crucial characteristics of the new Asian regionalism has been its exclusionary nature, specifically the intentional exclusion of the United States. Using the constructivist theoretical framework and several empirical cases, we analyze and explain why and how Asian regionalism has become exclusionary in its nature.