Asia’s Institutional Creation and Evolution

Abstract

This article explores the formation and evolution of regional institutions in the Asia-Pacific and East Asia. Employing a historical institutionalist framework, this article argues that both Asia-Pacific and East Asian regional institutions were created at critical junctures, precipitated by extra-regional developments that called the legitimacy of existing institutional mechanisms into serious question. Preexisting institutions greatly shaped the institutional design of the subsequent regional institutions, revealing a path-dependent nature of institutional evolution. The timing and sequence of regional institution building is an important factor for explaining institutional change. Specifically, the analysis demonstrates that although new regional institutions with different memberships have emerged at critical junctures, the centrality of ASEAN as a source of institutional modus operandi has persisted within these institutions, notwithstanding changes in material circumstances and the recognition of inefficiencies and ineffectiveness.