Asia and Europe: Federal vs. Concentric Paths to Regional Integration

EU and ASEAN

Greek Crisis, East Asia Summit

EU & ASEAN: Similarities

• Began as Political Projects• Moved on to Economic Focus• Functional Development• Intergovernmental, Summit Process• Outreach to Neighboring Countries, other

regional organizations• Broader, Deeper, Better

EU and ASEAN

EU & ASEAN: Differences

• Primary Drivers: Economics vs. Politics• Stepwise Process vs. Long Latent Period• Build up of Bureaucracy vs. Crisis-driven entity• Supranationalism vs. Inter-governmentalism • Political Equality vs. Concentric Rings

Major Theories of European Integration

• Functionalism• Neo-Functionalism• Inter-governmentalism• Liberal Inter-governmentalism

Haas, Schmitter, Moravcsik

Other Theories of European Integration

• Institutionalism• Constitutionalism• Federalism• Regulationism• Multi-level Governance• Polycentric Governance• Neo-neo-functionalism

Problems Applying European Ideas

• Mercosur’s Political Process• ASEAN’s Differences

Specificity of European ConditionsCrisis-driven developmentRegional TransformationNo aims for high-level integration

Asia’s crises

Elements of Asian Integration Theory

Existing Theories:•Functionalism•Neo-functionalism•Inter-governmentalism•Liberal Inter-governmentalism

Other Theories Don’t Apply

Traditional I.R. Theory

• Realism• Neo-realism• Liberalism/Neo-liberalism• World Systems Theory• Constructivism

Which provides the most useful approach?

Giants of I.R.

A Model of Asian Integration

• Politics Economics• Punctuated Equilibrium

Crisis-driven Regionalism• Strong Inter-governmentalism• Concentric Grouping

1) ASEAN, 2) ASEAN+3, 3) ASEAN+6,4) ASEAN+8, 5) SCO, SAARC

Europe and East Asia