Abstract
Today, in Asia, ideas of regionalism are at a crossroads. With the new US administration, America’s ‘Pivot to Asia’ strategy and the Trans-Pacific Partnership are no longer part of the map in comprising regionalism. Baogang He’s Contested Ideas of Regionalism in Asia, although written before the inauguration of the Trump administration, timely provides historical guidelines and the future of the evolving ideas of Asian regionalism. Specifically, He accomplishes his analysis, from a realist-constructivist perspective, by mapping out the various ideas of regionalism across the Asian countries and demonstrating how these concepts have interacted with one another to make up the ideas we have today.
He provides a compelling analysis of how the different ideas of regionalism can be defined by the broad debate on Pan-Asianism versus Asia-Pacific regionalism. The author highlights the history of Asian regionalism from a unique perspective. Going back into history as early as the 1900s, demonstrated by the second through fourth chapters, He uncovers the origins of the different regionalisms by focusing on the ideas of key intellectual leaders across Asia. Unlike existing studies that consider the development of regionalism in Asia from the post-war period to be mostly market-driven rather than institution-driven (until the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997), He fills in the puzzle that has inspired and extended today’s ideas of regionalism by taking a historical-ideational approach to analysis. For example, following the introductory chapter, the author provides a comprehensive survey of the competing ideas that have emerged in India, Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand from the beginning of the twentieth century.
In the third chapter, He traces the development of Chinese leaders’ ideas about regionalism, beginning with Sun Yat-sen’s idea of regionalism, which emerged in the 1920s, to the more contemporary developments that have continued through Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping. Defining these trajectories of ideas as the Pan-Asian regionalism, He suggests that patterns in the Chinese ideas of regionalism can be found in their emphasis on nationalism; China has continued to concentrate on the role of the nation-state to combat imperialism and utilize regionalism as an instrument for pragmatic goals rather than develop a genuine sense of shared regional community. In the fourth chapter, He then introduces the contrasting concept of Asia-Pacific regionalism, strongly promoted by Australian leaders such as Gogh Whitman, Paul Keating and Kevin Rudd. For the author, Australia has been keen to actively engage in both the Asian and Pacific region to complement the economic and security disadvantages that arise from its geographical isolation and its cultural and identity differences from continental Asia. For He, as a middle power, Australia’s ideas hold weight and can contribute to the creation of an open regionalism in Asia. However, this is contingent on Australia’s ability to learn from its historical successes and failures and how it develops its identity in the region. Furthermore, these chapters highlight how China and Australia have dealt with other great powers, particularly with the active engagement of the United States in the region.
The fifth through seventh chapters are devoted to explaining the competing ideas of regionalisms in norms, governance and security. The fifth chapter compares the differences in norms between the European Union and Asia by specifically focusing on the key differences that constitute the two regionalisms, namely the ideals of nationalism, sovereignty, non-intervention and democracy. The sixth chapter compares and contrasts the two rival concepts of regional governance—East Asian and Asia-Pacific regional governances—and characterizes the dominant form of governance in Asia as elitist, minimal and lightly regulated. In the seventh chapter, He examines whether Asian security regionalism can reduce conflict in the region by focusing on the competing powers in the region, such as the United States, China and ASEAN, and further establishes the conditions in which regionalism can play a greater role in promoting peace and security. In all of these chapters, the author seeks to strike a balance between the rival concepts and ideas of regionalisms; an ideal regionalism should be some mixture of all these ideas. Thus, in the final chapter, He proposes and offers the conditions that comprise ‘hybrid regionalism’, which envisions a Great Asian Union as a basis for perpetual peace.
The greatest weakness and strength of this book arise from the author’s mediating approaches taken for both the theory of international relations and the feasibility of the hybrid regionalism. Methodologically, the author’s presentation of idea as an independent variable tends to become ambiguous by his realist-constructivist perspective. He does not distinguish whether it was the external threats and the changing international environment that triggered the sources of change in the leaders’ ideas and regional norms, or vice versa; from the text, the author’s approach is closer to that of a realist rather than a constructivist’s, even though the ideas are at the centre of the discussion. Moreover, the term ‘idea’ can be confusing to readers, as it is used interchangeably to refer to the two different dimensions of ideas: (i) norms, culture and identity and (ii) ideas of intellectual leaders and their ability to convince others. Therefore, it becomes difficult to identify the causal mechanism between the rationalist motivations, norms and identity, and the leaders’ ideas in shaping the ideas of regionalism. Finally, the concept and conditions of hybrid regionalism is ideal, but the text falls short when it comes to addressing its feasibility.
Despite the shortcomings, He’s novelty in addressing the Asian regionalism hybrid approaches provides a versatile way of dissecting and analysing the diversity of ideas and values that exist across Asia. The author excels in accommodating the long evolutionary paths of the origins of ideas developed throughout almost a century. It, thus, provides an excellent comprehensive overview of the competing ideas of regionalisms and suggests a blueprint of where we can go from here. It is, by no means, an easy task to connect the different visions for regionalisms, considering the diversity of culture and norms that exist across Asia. Hence, it is refreshingly convincing when the author makes a bold suggestion that regionalism is a new type of ideology which poses new challenges to conventional ideologies, such as individualism, communitarianism, nationalism, Marxism and liberalism (p. 10).
As Asia faces turbulent times through various global challenges and regional competitions, any interested observers will appreciate the intuition which Contested Ideas of Regionalism in Asia has to offer. For readers seeking an extensive introduction to the competing proposals for regionalism in Asia, this book will be highly satisfying. It also is recommended to those who are interested in regionalism, constructivism, competing powers and international relations in general.