Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T11:05:20.607Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Soft Balancing, Hedging, and Institutional Darwinism: The Economic-Security Nexus and East Asian Regionalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2016

T. J. Pempel
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

East Asia has increased its formal institutional linkages in both the economic and security arenas. This article addresses three questions concerning this expansion. First, why has the number of institutions increased? Second, why is there so little overlap in the purposes and memberships of these many new bodies? Third, why have most regional institutions achieved such limited policy successes? The article demonstrates that the bulk of the new economic institutions represent collective responses to generalized pressures from globalized finance, whereas the new security bodies deal with regionally endogenous problems of a highly particularistic character. Furthermore, most regional bodies in East Asia still reflect the preeminence of individual state strategies rather than any collective predisposition toward multilateralism per se. East Asian regionalism thus represents a complex “ecosystem” of institutions whose future is likely to see the enhancement of some and the diminution of others through a process referred to here as “institutional Darwinism.”

Keywords

regionalismEast AsiaASEAN+3Chiang Mai InitiativeSix-Party TalksShanghai Cooperation Organizationeconomicssecuritymultilateralism
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of East Asian Studies , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , August 2010 , pp. 209 - 238
Copyright
Copyright © East Asia Institute 

References

Acharya, Amitav. 2001. Constructing a Security Community in Southeast Asia: ASEAN and the Problem of Regional Order. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Acharya, Amitav. 2004. “How Ideas Spread: Whose Norms Matter? Norm Localization and Institutional Change in Asian Regionalism.” International Organization 58, 2: 239–275.Google Scholar
Aggarwal, Vinod K., and Koo, Min Gyo, eds. 2008. Asia's New Institutional Architecture: Evolving Structures for Managing Trade, Financial, and Security Relations. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Alagappa, Muthiah, ed. 2003. Asian Security Order: Instrumental and Normative Features. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Amyx, Jennifer. 2004. “Japan and the Evolution of Regional Financial Arrangements in East Asia.” In Beyond Bilateralism: U.S.-Japan Relations in the New Asia-Pacific, ed. Krauss, Ellis S. and Pempel, T. J., 198–218. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Amyx, Jennifer. 2008. “Stocktaking on Regional Financial Initiatives Among the ASEAN+3.” In Crisis as Catalyst: The Dynamics of the East Asian Political Economy, ed. MacIntyre, Andrew, Pempel, T. J., and Ravenhill, John. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Armstrong, Charles K., et al., eds. 2006. Korea at the Center: Dynamics of Regionalism in Northeast Asia. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Arndt, Sven W., and Kierzkowski, Henryk. 2001. Fragmentation: New Production Patterns in the World Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
ASEAN Regional Forum. 2004. “Chairman's Summary of the First ASEAN Regional Forum Security Policy Conference, Beijing, 4–6 November 2004,” www.aseanregionalforum.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=UGmUBdCeY3o%3D&tabid=66&mid=403.Google Scholar
Buzan, Barry. 2003. “Security Architecture in Asia: The Interplay of Regional and Global Levels.” The Pacific Review 16, 2: 143–173.Google Scholar
Buzan, Barry, and Segal, Gerald. 1994. “Rethinking East Asian Security.” Survival 36, 2: 3–21.Google Scholar
Cha, Victor D. 2007. “Winning Asia: Washington's Untold Success Story.” Foreign Affairs 86, 6: 98–113.Google Scholar
Cohen, Benjamin J. 1993. “The Triad and the Unholy Trinity: Lessons for the Pacific Region.” In Pacific Economic Relations in the 1990s: Cooperation or Conflict? ed. Higgott, Richard, Leaver, Richard, and Ravenhill, John, 133–158. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Cohen, Benjamin J. 2000. “Taming the Phoenix: Monetary Governance After the Crisis.” In The Asian Financial Crisis and the Structure of Global Finance, ed. Noble, Greg and Ravenhill, John, 192–212. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, Benjamin J. 2008. “After the Fall: East Asian Exchange Rates Since the Crisis.” In Crisis as Catalyst: Asia's Dynamic Political Economy, ed. MacIntyre, Andrew, Pempel, T. J., and Ravenhill, John, 23–44. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Cole, William, and Jensen, Eric G. 2009. “Norms and Regional Architecture: Multilateral Institution Building in Asia and Its Impact on Governance and Democracy.” In Asia's New Multilateralism: Cooperation, Competition, and the Search for Community, ed. Green, Michael J. and Gill, Bates, 243–278. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Dent, C. M. 2003. “Networking the Region? The Emergence and Impact of Asia-Pacific Bilateral Trade Agreement Projects.” Pacific Review 16, 1: 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedberg, Aaron. 1993. “Ripe for Rivalry: Prospects for Peace in a Multipolar Asia.” International Security 18, 3: 5–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frost, Ellen L. 2008. Asia's New Regionalism. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Goh, Evelyn. 2007–2008. “Great Powers and Hierarchical Order in Southeast Asia.” International Security 32, 3: 113–157.Google Scholar
Goh, Evelyn, and Acharya, Amitav. 2008. “The ASEAN Regional Forum and Security Regionalism: Comparative Chinese and American Positions.” In Advancing East Asian Regionalism, ed. Curley, Melissa and Thomas, Nicholas, 96–115. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Grimes, William W. 2006. “East Asian Financial Regionalism in Support of the Global Financial Architecture? The Political Economy of Regional Nesting.” Journal of East Asian Studies 6: 353–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grimes, William W. 2009. Currency and Contest in East Asia: The Great Power Politics of Financial Regionalism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Haftel, Yoram Z. 2007. “Designing for Peace: Regional Integration Arrangements, Institutional Variation, and Militarized Interstate Disputes.” International Organization 61: 217–237.Google Scholar
Hale, David D. 1998. “Dodging the Bullet—This Time.” Brookings Review 16: 22–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton-Hart, Natasha. 2008. “Financial Cooperation and Domestic Political Economy in East Asia.” In Advancing East Asia Regionalism, ed. Curley, Melissa G. and Thomas, Nicholas, 116–136. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
He, Kai, and Feng, Huiyun. 2008. “If Not Soft Balancing, Then What? Reconsidering Soft Balancing and U.S. Policy Toward China.” Security Studies 17, 2: 363–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henning, , Randall, C. 2009. “The Future of the Chiang Mai Initiative: An Asian Monetary Fund?” Policy Brief PB09-5. Washington, DC: Peterson Institute for International Economics.Google Scholar
Higgott, Richard A. 1998. “The Asian Economic Crisis: A Study in the Politics of Resentment.” New Political Economy 4, 1.Google Scholar
Higgott, Richard A. 2004. “US Foreign Policy and the ‘Securitization’ of Economic Globalization.” International Politics 41: 147–175.Google Scholar
IMF. 2008. www.imf.org/external/np/sta/ir/jpn/eng/curjpn.htm.Google Scholar
International Institute for Strategic Studies. 2009. The Shangri-La Dialogue, www.iiss.org/conferences/the-shangri-la-dialogue (accessed August 16, 2009).Google Scholar
Johnston, Iain. 2003. “Socialization in International Institutions: The ASEAN Way and International Relations Theory.” In International Relations Theory and the Asia Pacific, ed. John Ikenberry, G. and Mastanduno, Michael, 107–162. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Jones, David Martin, and Smith, Michael L. R. 2007. “Making Process, Not Progress: ASEAN and the Evolving East Asian Regional Order.” International Security 32, 1: 148–184.Google Scholar
Kang, David, 2003. “Hierarchy and Stability in Asian International Relations.” In International Relations Theory and the Asia Pacific, ed. John Ikenberry, G. and Mastanduno, Michael, 163–190. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Kato, Kozo. 2000. “Open Regionalism and Japan's Systematic Vulnerability.” In Asian Regionalism, ed. Katzenstein, Peter J., Hamilton-Hart, Natasha, Kato, Kozo, and Yue, Ming. Ithaca: Cornell East Asia Program.Google Scholar
Katzenstein, Peter J., and Shiraishi, Takashi. 1997. Network Power. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, Samuel S., ed. 2004. The International Relations of Northeast Asia. Lanham, MD: Roman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Koremenos, Barbara, Lipson, Charles, and Snidal, Duncan. 2001. “The Rational Design of International Institutions.” International Organization 55, 4.Google Scholar
Kucera, Joshua. 2007. “Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summiteers Take Shots at US Presence in Central Asia.” Eurasia Insight, August 20, www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav082007a.shtml.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, Andrew, Pempel, T. J., and Ravenhill, John, eds. 2008. “Conclusion.” In Crisis as Catalyst: Asia's Dynamic Political Economy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Mahbubani, Kishore. 2008. The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East. New York: Public Affairs.Google Scholar
Mearsheimer, John J. 2001. The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Naughton, Barry. 1997. The China Circle: Economics and Technology in the PRC, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Noble, Gregory W., and Ravenhill, John. 2000. The Asian Financial Crisis and the Architecture of Global Finance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
North, Douglass C. 1990. Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Overholt, William H. 2008. Asia, America, and the Transformation of Geopolitics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Paul, T. V. 2004. “The Enduring Axioms of Balance of Power Theory.” In Balance of Power: Theory and Practice in the 21st Century, ed. Paul, T. V., Wirtz, James J., and Fortmann, Michel. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Paul, T. V. 2005. “Soft Balancing in an Age of U.S. Primacy.” International Security 30, 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pempel, T. J. 1997. “Transpacific Torii: Japan and the Emerging Asian Regionalism.” In Network Power, ed. Katzenstein, Peter J. and Shiraishi, Takashi, 47–82. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Pempel, T. J. 1999. The Politics of the Asian Economic Crisis. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pempel, T. J. 2005. Remapping East Asia: The Construction of a Region. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Pempel, T. J. 2006. “The Race to Connect East Asia: An Unending Steeplechase.” Asian Economic Policy Review 1, 2.Google Scholar
Pempel, T. J. 2008a. “Firebreak: East Asia Institutionalizes Its Finances.” In Institutionalizing Northeast Asia: Regional Steps Toward Global Governance, ed. Timmermann, Martina and Tsuchiyama, Jitsuya. Tokyo: United Nations University.Google Scholar
Pempel, T. J. 2008b. “How Bush Bungled Asia.” Pacific Review 21, 5: 547–581.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perkins, Dwight H. 2007. “East Asian Economic Growth and Its Implications for Regional Security.” Asia-Pacific Review 14, 1: 44–53.Google Scholar
Perry, William J. 2009. “In Search of a North Korea Policy.” Washington Post, October 11, A-19.Google Scholar
Pierson, Paul. 2000. “The Limits of Design: Explaining Institutional Origins and Design.” Governance 13, 4: 475–499.Google Scholar
Pierson, Paul. 2004. Politics in Time. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Posen, Barry R. 2003. “Command of the Commons: The Military Foundations of U.S. Hegemony.” International Security 28, 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pritchard, Charles L. 2007. Failed Diplomacy: The Tragic Story of How North Korea Got the Bomb. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Ravenhill, John. 2008. “Asia's New Economic Institutions.” In Asia's New Institutional Architecture: Evolving Structures for Managing Trade, Financial, and Security Relations, ed. Aggarwal, Vinod K. and Koo, Min Gyo, 35–58. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Ravenhill, John. 2009. “The Economic-Security Nexus in the Asia-Pacific Region.” In Security Politics in the Asia-Pacific, ed. Tow, William. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shanghai Cooperation Organization, www.sectsco.org/EN (accessed February 28, 2008).Google Scholar
Solingen, Etel. 2007. “Pax Asiatica Versus Bella Levantina: The Foundations of War and Peace in East Asia and the Middle East.” American Political Science Review 101, 4: 757–780.Google Scholar
Steinmo, Sven, Thelen, Kathleen, and Longstreth, Frank. 1992. Structuring Politics: Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Google Scholar
Streeck, Wolfgang, and Thelen, Kathleen, eds. 2005. Beyond Continuity: Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies. Oxford. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Suominen, Kati. 2009. “The Changing Anatomy of Regional Trade Agreements in East Asia.” Journal of East Asian Studies 9: 29–56.Google Scholar
Tachiki, Dennis. 2005. “Between Foreign Direct Investment and Regionalism: The Role of Japanese Production Networks.” In Remapping East Asia, ed. Pempel, T. J., 149–169. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Thelen, Kathleen. 2004. How Institutions Evolve: The Political Economy of Skills in Germany, Britain, the United States and Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
US Department of State. 2008. www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2007/february/80479.htm (accessed February 26, 2008).Google Scholar
Walt, Steven M. 2009. “Alliances in a Unipolar World.” World Politics 61, 1: 86–120.Google Scholar
Waltz, Kenneth N. 1993. “The Emerging Structure of International Politics,” International Security 18, 2: 44–79.Google Scholar
Winters, Jeffrey A. 1999. “The Determinant of Financial Crisis in Asia.” In The Politics of the Asian Economic Crisis, ed. Pempel, T. J. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Woo-Cumings, Meredith, ed. 1999. The Developmental State. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
World Bank. 1993. The East Asian Miracle: Economic Growth and Public Policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Yahuda, Michael B. 2004. The International Politics of the Asia-Pacific, 1945–1995, 2nd ed. London: Routledge Curzon.Google Scholar