Competing conceptions of economic regionalism: APEC versus EAEC in the Asia pacific

TLDR

Rapid economic growth in the Asia Pacific has sparked debate over the optimal structure for regional economic dialogue, with APEC as the dominant forum but contested by proponents of a more Asian‑focused East Asian Economic Caucus. This study compares APEC and the EAEC as contrasting models of regional economic cooperation. The analysis shows that economic dialogue in the region is shaped not only by rational utility considerations but also by politics, culture, and identity, leaving the long‑term definition of the Asia Pacific region unresolved.

Abstract

Abstract Dramatic economic growth in the Asia Pacific has given rise to a both a scholarly and policy oriented debate about the most appropriate organizational form within which any dialogue over the nature economic policy coordination in the region might take place. The most visible exercise in regional economic dialogue over the last few years has been via the evolution of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC). APEC's increasing international profile does not, however, pass uncontested. Some states, and most vocally Malaysia, exhibit a preference for a more 'Asian' and less 'Pacific' form of regional economic dialogue via the putative East Asian Economic Caucus (EAEC). This paper examines APEC and the EAEC as exemplars of two competing conceptions of regional economic cooperation. The paper demonstrates that enhanced economic dialogue in the Asia Pacific cannot be understood simply in rationalistic, utility maximizing terms. Questions of politics, culture and identity are also shaping up to be extremely important. The outcome of this contest over how an understanding of 'region' in the Asia Pacific will be constituted over the long term is yet to be determined.