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This paper argues that amid intensifying Sino-U.S. rivalry, middle powers in East Asia have contributed towards regional peaceful change through the exercise of good regional citizenship, a concept which draws on and modifies from the more commonly known good international citizenship which is closely associated with middle powers. Specifically, good regional citizenship involves proactively strengthening inclusive multilateralism, enhancing the rules-based order, and contributing to bridging efforts in East Asia. The paper examines the good regional citizenship of two middle powers, namely Australia and Indonesia. It finds that while both countries have exercised good regional citizenship, their specific strategies or the outcomes of their initiatives on regional dynamics have varied as a result of their relations with the respective major powers and their general foreign policy approaches. Australia's good regional citizenship has supported the preservation of U.S. leadership in East Asia vis-à-vis the rise of other regional powers, while Indonesia's good regional citizenship has helped to narrow the gaps among regional actors through mechanisms led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigated the dynamics between trade openness and energy consumption in five members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and three East Asian countries from 1980 to 2014. Previous theoretical discussions and empirical findings pointed out that trade openness had ambiguous effects on energy consumption. A panel dataset involving energy consumption per capita, trade openness, real gross domestic product per capita, gross fixed capital formation per capita and foreign direct investment was estimated. The Lagrange multiplier (LM) cross-sectional dependence test confirms the existence of cross-sectional dependence among the cross-sectional units. Moreover, the Westerlund cointegration test showed that the variables were not cointegrated. Hence, the dynamics among the variables were explored using the panel vector autoregressive method. The results suggested that there is a unidirectional Granger causality from trade openness to energy consumption. Further, the impulse response functions implied that the effect of trade openness on energy consumption occurred via the dynamics between trade openness and gross capital formation per capita. Finally, the forecast error variance decomposition showed that the contribution of trade openness on energy consumption increased during the examined period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A well-developed services supply chain is crucial for regional integration. In the context of East Asia and ASEAN, it will allow countries at varying development stages to effectively participate in regional as well as global supply chains. This paper examines services from a supply chain perspective and discusses policy implications for liberalization of the sector in East Asian economies. In particular, the study focuses on global value chain (GVC) activities for services that are independent of linkages to the manufacturing sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asian countries signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) in November 2020. This paper demonstrates the importance of ASEAN centrality in East Asian economic integration and makes a preliminary assessment of the agreement in terms of the four expected roles: liberalization, rulemaking, reducing policy risks, and forming a pro-trade middle power coalition. The comparison with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) reveals the strengths and weaknesses of RCEP. The paper emphasizes the importance of dynamic aspects of mega-FTAs after being in effect and claims that RCEP must be further developed as an evolving agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Republic of Korea (ROK) is one of the non-major powers most closely interested in the nature of the hierarchical security order in East Asia and its transition, but little academic attention has been drawn to examining its diplomatic positions or policy directions as it responds to and shapes the regional security order. Drawing on realist insights into order transition and their implications for security relations between major and non-major powers, this paper examines the nature of the security order in East Asia and critically discusses how the ROK's approach to order management has been of only limited success in addressing the structural risks growing out of the changing natures of the regional order. It also discusses the collective order management of its Southeast Asian neighbors as a comparable case that tackles similar risks differently. The paper concludes with a discussion of how a stronger partnership with Southeast Asia could complement the limitations of the ROK's approach to regional security order management, particularly in this time of a rapid transition to a bipolar East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Probability of forming regional trade agreements (RTAs) will be greater if two countries are closer in geographical distance. This paper extends the meaning of 'closer' by considering not only the geographical distance, but also the socio-political distance as well. This paper empirically analyzes whether a causal relation exists between the socio-political factors−the cultural affinity measured by common language, same religion, and a newly introduced composite index of cultural distance and political ties measured by the existence of a military alliance and the level of democracy–and the likelihood that RTAs will form. For such quantitative analysis, this paper applies the estimation techniques of a qualitative choice model (pooled Probit model with cluster-robust standard errors) to the panel data, which covers bilateral country-pairs among 66 countries between 1998 and 2009. In addition, the interdependence of the formation of RTA is also investigated by considering the third country effects. For a feasibility study, we estimate the probability of forming the proposed RTAs in the East Asian region as an empirical application. We find that the formation of RTAs has been strongly and significantly driven by the reduced cultural distance between members and influenced by the interdependence with third countries. Unlike the existing studies, however, the conventional socio-political determinants (religious similarity, military alliance, and democracy) do not significantly matter for the formation of interdependent RTAs. From the feasibility test for proposed RTAs in East Asia, we argue that building closer cultural linkages between countries in the region are prerequisite to realize the formation of the proposed RTAs such as the China-Japan (CJ), the Japan-Korea (JK), the China-Japan-Korea (CJK), the ASEAN + 3 (10 Association of SouthEast Asian Nations, China, Japan, and Korea), and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to assess the influence of the heterogeneity of financial institutions in the relationship between bilateral trade and the monetary integration process in East Asia. I used a structural gravity model with similarity of currency regimes, and I introduced a variable of heterogeneity of financial institutions derived from the World Bank Financial Development and Structure Dataset. The main hypothesis is that the more heterogeneous financial institutions are, the less bilateral trade there is. The results show a negative relationship between trade and the heterogeneity of the financial institutions. A secondary hypothesis is that the potential positive effects of the monetary integration diminish after the introduction of the variable depicting the heterogeneity of financial institutions. The similarity of currency regimes has a negative effect on bilateral trade and that effect increases with the presence of the heterogeneity of financial institutions variable. I made a second estimation concerning 184 countries and territories. The results confirmed the negative and significant relationship between the heterogeneity of the financial institutions and trade. The recent reform plans of ASEAN countries should also consider these aspects, which are not limited to financial integration problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contest between the U.S. and China for who gets to define the region has been developing since the early 1990s. During this time, various competing images of who comprises the region have been seen from the narrow and geographical conception including just the ASEAN states, to wider China-preferred images based on the ASEAN plus three grouping, towards broader perspective favoured by Japan including Australia and New Zealand reflected in proposals such as the Comprehensive East Asian Economic Partnership Agreement. How do these regional competitions affect the status of Taiwan? This paper makes the argument that the move towards more state-based regional entities and patterns of engagement (regionalisation), which so far have not (yet) adversely affected Taiwan economically, it has produced significant political challenges for Taiwan's ability to continue to be autonomous from the mainland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asia's Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) came into force in 2022 as the world's largest free trade agreement. RCEP was concluded, signed and brought into force in the face of major international uncertainty and is a significant boost to the global trading system. RCEP brings Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand into the same agreement with the ten member ASEAN group at its centre. It keeps markets open and updates trade and investment rules in East Asia, a major centre of global economic activity, at a time of rising protectionism when the WTO itself is under threat. The agreement builds on ASEAN's free trade agreements and strengthens ASEAN centrality. One of the pillars of RCEP is an economic cooperation agenda which has its antecedents in ASEAN's approach to bringing along its least developed members and builds on the experience of capacity building in APEC and technical cooperation under the ASEAN Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement. There is an opportunity to create a framework that facilitates deeper economic cooperation that involves experience-sharing, extending RCEP's rules and membership at the same time as strengthening political cooperation. The paper suggests some areas that might be best suited to cooperation -- that is confidence and trust building instead of or before negotiation -- and discusses how non-members may be engaged and the membership expanded. Options such as multilateralising provisions and becoming a platform for policy convergence and coordinating unilateral reforms are canvassed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to calculate the net gains or losses for the ASEAN Members 1998-2007 in the East Asian market. Design/methodology/approach – This paper provides a new extension to the shift-share analysis to attribute the net shift to competing economies with a dynamic approach. This new extension is applied to analyze the competition among the ASEAN members in the East Asian market for the year from 1998-2007. Findings – Although in terms of market share, Indonesia and Malaysia take the lead in East Asia, the dynamic shift-share analysis suggests that the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia are gainers during 1998-2007, with positive net shifts and positive competitiveness effects. Originality/value – There are two main contributions of this paper: one is to dynamically estimate the net shifts of the economies as compared to the traditional comparative static approach; the other is to extend the shift-share analysis to attribute the net gains or losses to competing exporters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit outcomes, localisation of humanitarian aid has received the greatest amount of attention. Localisation is described as giving more support to national first respondents, making humanitarian aid 'as local as possible, as international as necessary'. Despite the good intentions, localisation presents a biased understanding of the local and its agency in transforming humanitarianism. Not only is localisation a failed attempt to reconfigure the international humanitarian system power relations, dominated by Western actors, but also it glosses over the crucial role of the South in moulding the humanitarian action norm. In order to address the latter, the paper reviews the history of humanitarian action in East Asia as a case of norm circulation, showing how the region's agency was essential to accommodate the foundations of liberal humanitarianism during the Cold War and, in the last two decades, to contest them. I argue that instead of localisation, a process of deglobalisation is taking shape in the region, based on increased national ownership of crisis response, privileging reciprocal, bilateral support over multilateral action, and legitimating the rejection of unnecessary support. These changes are pushing traditional humanitarian actors to rethink their practices, bringing much-needed change but also challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the South China Sea dispute when the international system lacks orientation and respect for the norms, values, and institutions. The conflict is conceptualized to encompass the States, International Law, and the East Asia order. The evidence demonstrates that ASEAN's regional order is more efficient than the US-Led Liberal order through UNCLOS. Additionally, it is necessary to overhaul and strengthen the institutional mechanisms from international Law regarding the United Nations. A change in the order and an international recognition are recommended to legitimize regional institutions to arbitrate territorial disputes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a fear among East Asian governments that China's rapid export driven growth is significantly impairing the export performance of their own countries. The common belief among East Asian economies is that to remain competitive they must improve the quality of their exports relative to those of China. In this paper, we show how the emergence of China has affected the quality of its exports and imports to and from Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Specifically, we combine a measure of marginal intra-industry trade (IIT) concerned with the adjustment implications of changes in matched trade, a measure of vertical and horizontal intra-industry trade concerned with the differences in product quality and a new dynamic measure of quality differentiated IIT. Our results suggest that Singapore and Malaysia have managed to maintain and even improve their position as the exporter of high quality varieties in bilateral trade with to China despite China's rapid development and export orientated growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decline of the U.S. and the rise of China have been one of the main drivers of change in the foreign policy of the countries in East Asia. Although having been often called "hedging," recent developments show more variation in states' response in the region. President Duterte's leaning towards China, possibly in response to the economic opportunities given by the Belt and Road Initiative, has reversed the predecessor's position. This poses puzzles that demand explanations beyond the state-level analysis. This paper examines what accounts for the shift and whether it is sustainable. Although the Philippines' foreign policy has traditionally been driven by the ruling elites, the election of President Duterte in 2016 has drawn renewed attention to the public as one of the domestic factors that influence foreign policy. Duterte's pivot to China appears to be conflicting with the general sentiments of the public about the U.S. and China, but in line with their aspirations for economic prosperity, considering the potential economic benefits that China can offer. This paper argues that recent policies can be explained by the dominant sentiment present in East Asia called "econophoria" (Buzan & Segal, 1994), which refers to the prioritization of economic growth to the point that legitimacy comes from rising living standards. It contends that econophoria is not something imposed by the state, but it is a choice by society as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution takes stock of ASEAN centrality in trade and the emerging policy area of trade infrastructure, also known as connectivity. ASEAN centrality in the East Asian and Indo-Pacific regions has increasingly been called into question, but most studies have failed to specify what ASEAN centrality is and how it can be measured. Outlining both a technical and a substantial definition, this study presents the state of affairs and current trends of ASEAN centrality in the areas of trade and connectivity. Disaggregating the concept, the paper assesses ASEAN's role in the two policy areas as a leader, convener, convenience, and necessity. ASEAN's central position in trade is under threat due to a changing environment, with trade ties increasing between ASEAN's partners. In addition, ASEAN leadership in the RCEP negotiations has been symbolic rather than substantial. In connectivity, ASEAN centrality is even more questionable. Its regional connectivity vision is contested by other states and relationships act as conduits for the exercise of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper examines economic regionalism in East Asia with a focus on the key issues in harmonizing bilateral free trade agreements. The ASEAN+1 free trade agreements with China, South Korea and Japan represent the first attempts to structure cooperation in trade across Southeast and Northeast Asia. It is therefore important to examine the coverage of these agreements and the extent to which they actually liberalize trade. This study focuses on major choices made in the negotiation of the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and the ways in which these choices help or hinder the consolidation of economic regionalism. The results achieved in the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement are limited at best. The agreement does establish some new areas of cooperation among the signatories but fails to address important issues for regionalism such as labor mobility. It also makes limited progress in harmonizing and liberalizing rules of origin. The ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement applies product-specific rules to fewer categories of goods than most of Japan's bilateral agreements with ASEAN members but those rules in place are still very restrictive. Moreover, the parties to the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement have the option of applying the rules of their bilateral agreement if it provides more favorable treatment. Thus, there is no guarantee the more liberal terms of the ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement will be applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of proliferation of preferential trade agreements, bilaterally and regionally, was particularly more pronounced both in the aftermath of the regional financial and economic crisis that affected East Asia in 1997-98 and in the inability of the WTO to yield any substantial outcome to improve growth prospects of the Asian economies. This paper analyses the implications of ASEAN's ongoing FTAs and examines its role in fostering deeper economic integration within ASEAN and in Asia. It analyses the evolution and characteristics of FTA proliferation in ASEAN, identifying major trends. The paper argues that in their present state, if not properly designed and managed, there are valid concerns that these FTAs could end up becoming a stumbling block towards integration efforts. Implementation integrity among FTA members therefore remains a key to its success, and empirical and policy research needs to be much more forthcoming in this area in order to fully understand the economic ramifications of these FTAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of the recent ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) launch in 2010, this paper argues for the greater scholarly contribution of international development studies in the discourse of comparative education in East Asia. The argument is based on three premises. The first acknowledges the growing relations of East Asian countries to neighbouring low income nations. The second premise is to realise an urgent need to fill the existing research gap in the field of comparative education. The last responds to today's dominant theme, 'globalisation', in the discourse of comparative education. The paper ends up in encouraging ongoing communication with researchers from different disciplines and societies, in order to seek mutual respect, share visions and find compatibility to contribute to the transformation of regional relations as well as increased well-being across the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In the Ministerial meeting of ASEAN held in 1998, the devastation caused by Asian financial crisis remained the point of contemplation. The participants enthusiastically discussed the need to establish common currency and exchange rate system in order to counter any financial crisis anticipated. The ever-growing financial crisis threatening every region in the world has compelled the economists to acknowledge the elevating need of financial cooperation in their respective territories. This is certainly meant to ensure economic stability at both economic and political level. The authors, in the course of this paper, have focused the need to materialize the ideal of promoting monetary integration in the major economies of South, South East, and North East Asia. Calculating Optimum Currency Area (OCA) Index, the authors in a way present costs and benefits associated with the adoption of this currency union. Demand and supply sides of each economy are tested as a pre requisite of OCA in order to provide a good rationale in favor of selection of regions. For this purpose, Structural VAR Analysis (SVAR) method was employed and innovation accounting is done through variance decomposition of forecast errors, impulse response function and correlation matrix. The theory of OCA has been tested by (i) calculating the OCA index estimated by simple OLS method and (ii) following Bayoumi and Eichengreen extrapolating the variability of exchange rate data. The common consensus drawn from the two approaches adopted implies that there is a good potential in the region excluding China to construct a currency union particularly amongst South and North East Asian economies. It is worth mentioning, however, that some of these will have to work harder to join and become an effective member of this currency merger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of China in East Asia's recovery from the recent global financial and economic crisis highlights China's position as an engine of growth for this region. From the viewpoint of China, there are many potential gains from entering into free trade agreements (FTAs) with its neighbors, who collectively form a large and fast-growing market. In this paper, we qualitatively and quantitatively assess the four main permutations of China's FTAs with East Asian major economies: China-ASEAN, China-Japan, China-Korea and ASEAN+3. We compare the effects of these FTAs on China's output and welfare. Our comparative analysis shows that China will gain from all three bilateral FTAs, while gaining the most from the ASEAN+3. Because forming a region-wide FTA, such as the ASEAN+3, is expected to be gradual and difficult, China should continue to engage in bilateral FTAs as a medium-term and alternative strategy. However, in the long term, China should pursue a region-wide FTA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of remarkable economic growth and financial development in the emerging economies of East Asia, this paper attempts to shed light on the ecological consequences (CO2 emission) of economic growth, foreign direct investment and financial development in the selected ASEAN-5 economies. Drawing on the data from 1982 to 2014, we employed a set of quantitative techniques for panel data analysis which entailed Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) and Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS) approaches. Our findings indicate that financial and economic development, as well as FDI, have a statistically significant long-run co-integrating relationship with environmental degradation (CO2 emissions) in the under analysis economies. It showed that in ASEAN-5 countries, economic growth, financial development and FDI leads to an increase in environmental degradation. The quadratic term for economic growth showed a negative impact on environmental degradation i.e. Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). Our key findings manifest and emphasise the importance of appropriate policies for more inclusive economic and financial development and sustainable foreign direct investment which does not impede on the environment. Image 1 • Remarkable economic growth, financial development and FDI Influx weighs on the environmental quality in ASEAN. • Financial and economic development and FDI have a significant long-run relationship with environmental degradation. • Weak evidence of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). • FDI leads to environmental degradation in ASEAN i.e. support for Pollution Heavens Hypothesis (PHH) in ASEAN. • Different aspect of financial development has varying impact on the Environmental degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Asian financial crisis in 1997, many financial cooperative arrangements among the ASEAN +3 countries have been formed to facilitate policy coordination and to prevent another crisis from adversely affecting East Asia. This paper focuses on regional surveillance cooperation, which has been regarded as a pre-requisite for deeper financial cooperation including bilateral swap arrangements under Chiang Mai Initiatives. Although East Asian states have acknowledged the significance of the regional surveillance mechanism in the midst of the crisis, which could facilitate information sharing and frank discussion of potential risks in the region, it showed little progress until very recently. What explains this unsuccessful regional surveillance cooperation given the initial enthusiasm and widely-acknowledged need for it? This article takes seriously domestic implementation capacities and enforcement problems on a regional level. It argues that member states are discouraged from exchanging frank views on other states' financial conditions because they expect that even non-intrusive policies would not necessarily be successfully implemented in those countries where sufficient domestic regulatory and supervisory capacities are lacking. Moreover, regional surveillance cooperation had troubles in enforcement: the norm of non-interventionism, lack of independent regional agencies and staff that could monitor and enforce compliance, and lack of transparency. In these circumstances, current surveillance mechanisms are likely to become a stumbling block for deeper financial integration in East Asia until serious efforts are made to tackle problems with enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper re-assesses the prospects for greater exchange rate cooperation in East Asia in the wake of the Asian financial crisis of 1997–8. The crisis highlighted the inability of unilateral exchange rate mechanisms to deal adequately with the inflow of foreign capital and the absence of a common defensive mechanism to deal with speculative movements in exchange rates. Since 1997 there have been a number of initiatives to enhance monetary cooperation in the region including options for a common exchange rate system. We find that whilst a common monetary and exchange rate policy in East Asia is unlikely in the foreseeable future, until the net economic benefits of giving up unilateral exchange rate regimes are more apparent, a good case can be made for continuing to talk about such arrangements. In the early stages the prerequisites for exchange rate cooperation are not as demanding as for full monetary union, provided sufficient flexibility is built-in. Of the available options a solution along the lines of the former European Exchange Rate Mechanism might be politically the most appealing if the arrangements are flexible enough to leave countries initially with sufficient independence in macroeconomic policy, and it can build on European experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which serves as the linchpin of regionalism in East Asia, is facing a new challenge of great power politics. This article explores ASEAN's position in and strategy for taking cooperative regional initiatives by referring to the management of confrontational politics between rival states. It explains ASEAN's handling of great power politics theoretically by impartial enmeshment for managing great powers' material interests and moral legitimacy in developing specific ideational frameworks. This article argues that ASEAN managed great powers' rivalry by enmeshing them into its regional initiatives impartially and maintaining organisational legitimacy by developing systems of socio-cultural norms. It also contends that ASEAN needs, in envisioning the future of Indo-Pacific regionalism, to extend its strategic reach through alignments with other parties and enhance moral legitimacy by deepening and broadening normative frameworks for advancing collective interests for the Indo-Pacific region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article unpacks the dynamics of group hedging in international relations by examining the Southeast Asian states' collective efforts to use ASEAN-led multilateral institutions as a platform to hedge against a range of risks surrounding intensifying big-power rivalry and increasing global uncertainties. It argues that ASEAN's collective hedging is a converged but not necessarily coordinated act. Despite the states' diverging attributes and outlooks, they converge on shared vulnerabilities, collective memories, and disadvantaged positions. Southeast Asian states thus view ASEAN-based multilateralism as an indispensable, albeit insufficient, means to engage big powers and manage other challenges. Through the functions of institutional binding, buffering, and building, ASEAN's group hedging serves to mitigate and offset risks while shaping Asian order amid deepening uncertainties in the age of the Indo-Pacific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although economically interdependent, political rivalry between Japan and China have brought about the inability of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Plus Three (APT) process to transform itself into an East Asia Summit (EAS) as originally envisioned. The existence of the APT and the EAS as two separate entities not only reflected the politico-security rivalry between the two neighbours but more importantly affected the direction and progress of East Asian regionalism as a whole. Aiming to provide a historical account of the EAS process and examine Japan's role in the development of the EAS framework, this paper argues that Japan has put greater attention on the EAS and made numerous unilateral initiatives to develop it. While Japan does not seek ultimate power, it considers the EAS as an excellent opportunity to: (i) raise its influence in the region vis-à-vis China; (ii) elevate the status of the EAS in region-building and (iii) check Chinese advances by fulfilling its long-held policy of having other Asia Pacific countries, primarily Australia and New Zealand, join. Nevertheless, the decision to expand the EAS to include the USA and Russia will have some adverse effects on Japan's unilateral ambitions and the furtherance of regionalisation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maritime security is a major concern in the Asia Pacific, yet is riddled with highly complex "wicked problems" that have thus far defied solution. These include different interpretations of the Law of the Sea underpinning regional maritime security, the lack of good order at sea, numerous conflicting claims to maritime jurisdiction, the implications of increased naval activity in the region and the lack of agreed maritime boundaries. This article identifies major wicked problems and reflects on the likelihood that they will be successfully addressed in regional forums. It finds some optimistic indications of a greater preparedness to address these issues than has been the case in the past. However, much will depend on whether existing mindsets can change to allow regional countries to corporate more effectively with regards to maritime security. The article concludes with the proposal that an Asian Peace Research Institute should be established to promote more independent thinking and greater cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the leadership capacity of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to promote international relations in East Asia. It is stated that the ASEAN Secretariat is staffed by only 243 officials and operates on an annual budget of only 9,050,000 dollars, which weakens its capacity. It is stated that ASEAN's capacity to influence great power relations in Asia does not emerge from its institutional makeup, but from social relationships with its member-states.

By assessing the sustainability of regional trade agreements (RTAs) for East Asia, we quantitatively evaluate the likely impact of proposed East Asian RTA strategies on the East Asian economies and the world economy with respect to consumption, production, volume of trade and terms of trade effects by applying a multi-country and multi-sector computable general equilibrium model. These strategies include: (i) the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA: a being-left-alone strategy); (ii) an ASEAN Hub RTA (a hub-and-spoke type of overlapping RTA strategy); (iii) the AFTA versus a China–Japan–Korea RTA (a duplicating or competing RTA strategy); and (iv) an ASEAN+3 RTA (an expansionary RTA strategy). We find that an expansionary ASEAN+3 RTA could be a sustainable policy option because the members’ gains would be significantly positive, with more equitably distributed gains between members than when using other strategies. The effect on world welfare would also be positive and the negative effect on nonmembers would not be very strong. More interestingly, if the East Asian countries cooperate with Pacific Basin countries to form an APEC-level RTA, such as a free trade area of the Asia-Pacific, the extension of the regional trade bloc might be considered a more desirable policy option than the proposed East Asian RTAs for East Asian economies, even though countries excluded from the free trade area of the Asia Pacific are worse off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asia's Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement was concluded in a time of heightened uncertainty in the global economy and in the middle of the largest economic downturn in almost a century from a pandemic-induced global recession. The agreement consolidated the 10 member ASEAN's free trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand, and the three northeast Asian economic powers China, Japan and South Korea. RCEP's economic cooperation agenda incorporates ASEAN processes which go beyond helping countries to implement the agreement and has potential to expand cooperation to new areas. This economic cooperation process makes RCEP a living agreement that can serve the needs of members as they evolve. It can also be used to embrace non-RCEP members, especially India, around particular agendas. The agreement is an important opportunity for China to use the RCEP framework to trial reforms and demonstrate its commitment to broader international multilateral liberalisation and economic cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been leading economic integration within many structural changes in the world economy. ASEAN, established in 1967, has promoted regional economic integration since 1976. It started to work toward realizing the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) in 1992 and the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2003. ASEAN finally established the AEC at the end of 2015. The AEC is the most developed and advanced economic integration in East Asia. ASEAN is deepening the AEC for the next goal, AEC 2025. ASEAN also led East Asian cooperation initiatives, including ASEAN+3 and ASEAN+6, and ASEAN+1 FTAs. ASEAN proposed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and led the RCEP negotiations. Currently, rising protectionism and the US–China trade friction has great negative impacts on ASEAN and East Asia. Furthermore, the outbreak of COVID-19 has done great damage to ASEAN and East Asia. ASEAN is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthening the AEC steadily amidst growing protectionism and COVID-19 pandemic. The RCEP agreement was finally signed in November 2020. The RCEP is the first East Asian mega FTA. The RCEP has great meaning in ASEAN and East Asia. ASEAN secured ASEAN centrality in East Asian economic integration. The AEC and the RCEP will become more important amidst rising protectionism, and during and in the post-pandemic era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current literature concerning East Asia's security prospects in the face of the region's continued economic expansion and political development is full of contradictory predictions and analyses. The confusion is primarily due to the implicit assumptions underlying most of the current studies—universal, deterministic, and state-centric. The different views of East Asia's security prospects originate from the same kind of assumption that all decisionmakers will respond to external factors in certain uniform manners. This paper challenges this assumption and suggests that a substate-level analytical approach, which examines how external factors interact with decisionmakers in different countries, might be a better way to enhance our understanding on the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, East Asia's ASEAN+3 states have built the second-largest regional emergency liquidity fund in the world, the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM). With a total commitment of $ 240 billion to aid member states facing a currency crisis, CMIM can provide more funds to members than the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Nonetheless, CMIM continues to be functionally subordinate to IMF decisions. This may now be changing following the 2011 creation of the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO) as a regional mechanism to manage surveillance and design of CMIM lending programs. The ability to delegate surveillance and program design to an independent body is a crucial prerequisite to ending CMIM's subordination to the IMF, and AMRO seeks to ensure such autonomy through its institutional design. This article analyzes AMRO's progress toward autonomy, using indicators of effective delegation drawn from organizational theory and newly available information and data on AMRO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the initiatives of Indonesia to reform the rules and norms of ASEAN member countries to secure regional stability and create order in East Asia. Topics discussed include the non-interference principle for ASEAN and its importance for security and stabilization, consensus-based decision-making rule, the ASEAN charter-drafting process, post-Cyclone Nargis crisis management and liberal democratic principles.

Both Russia's 2012 APEC chairmanship and recent dynamics in its dialogue partnership with ASEAN indicate Russia's intention and ability to act as a constructive player engaged in regional institutional activities in East Asia. However, the implementation of this intention faces both domestic and international limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan's outward direct investment ( ODI) began to show an obvious expansion since 2005, accompanied by a greater importance in East Asia and in the manufacturing sector. By analyzing the new wave of Japanese ODI, three points are elaborated in this article. First, the recent Japanese ODI did not result in the same industry to be passed from one country to another as elucidated in the flying geese model. Instead, Japan's ODI only promoted the regional divisional of labor in the transport equipment and electrical machinery industries. Second, this study advances the theory of vertical production network by exploring two regional production networks constructed by Japanese ODI, including one between China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong and the other between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN). Finally, since Japan's economy has been tightly connected with foreign demand via overseas production, this article argues that any sign of Japan's declining ODI will have serious impact to its domestic economic prosperity. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article studies both general trends and peculiar characteristics of processes of economic integration in the Great East Asia, which plays the role of one of the major centers of contemporary global development. The basic determinants and barriers for implementation of regional strategies by China, Japan, ASEAN that will influence the geo-economic policy of Ukraine not only in East Asian, but also European and Eurasian areas. Attention is focused on the basic principles of realized and potential future integration models in the "ASEAN+" format with variable composition of member states that correspond to different extents to strategic objectives of both specified key actors in the region and extra-regional states that have global and transnational interests. Extrapolation of dominant trends in the nature and dynamics of transformation processes of East Asian economic regionalization allowed forming a forecast for the longterm conservation of importance of free trade agreements in the absence of preconditions to create customs unions. At the same time it was stressed out that proper assurance of national interests of international economic relations will be based on contractual instruments at the international level, without creating institutional and legal superstructure similar to the European Union or the Eurasian Economic Union as supranational law and supranational bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of a non-democratic China as the world ‘s second largest economy, still officially subscribing to Communism or ‘Socialism with Chinese characteristics’ as its ideology1, has raised the spectre of the return of the Cold War to Asia with the United States and China on opposing sides, with China backed by Russia, its former Cold War ally. But to what extent are there historical parallels between the Cold War and the current East Asian international relations system? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]