The Normative Deficit and the Tao of East Asian Regionalism.

The six-decade old aspiration for East Asian regionalism has actualized more than half a dozen intergovernmental projects and innumerable pieces of scholarship that have inadequately addressed the 'normative deficit' for building a regional society. This article argues that this 'normative deficit' in East Asian regionalism should be best addressed by Taoist international political thought rather than straightforward comparisons with western regionalism theory. The key advantage of a Taoist approach lies in the embrace of national self-limitation and the natural harmony of opposites in domestic governance and community building. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]