Des Kaisers neue Kleider? Zur aktuellen Situation regionaler Kooperation in Asien

Abstract This article reviews the current state of regional integration efforts in East Asia. So far the disparate membership of APEC and the relatively more focussed ASEAN have, in striking contrast to their summit rhetoric, failed to make any significant substantial progress in integration. The reasons for this failure are seen to lie not only in the vast cultural, ethnic, political and economic disparities and the continuing hegemonic conflicts in Asia, but equally in the unwillingness of most of the political classes to reduce prevailing nationalist tensions and to address seriously the core issue of shared sovereignty with all its implications. Hence, intergovernmentalism with its principles of unanimity, non-commitment and non-interference prevails as an exclusive and ultimately paralyzing mode of elite cooperation. Civic participation, supranational initiatives, majority decisions and contractual, enforceable commitments remain effectively excluded.
As things stand, even the long-term deadlines for ambitious East Asian Free Trade Areas and on variously configured East Asian Economic Communities are unlikely to be met.