The contested rescaling of economic governance in East Asia: a special issue

The special issue this article opens engages with an apparent conundrum that has often puzzled observers of East Asian politics—why, despite the region's considerable economic integration, multilateral economic governance institutions remain largely underdeveloped. The authors argue that this ‘regionalism problématique’ has led to the neglect of prior and more important questions pertaining to how patterns of economic governance, beyond the national scale, are emerging in East Asia and why. In this special issue, the contributors shift analytic focus onto social and political struggles over the scale and instruments of economic governance in East Asia. The contributions identify and explain the emergence of a wide variety of regional modes of economic governance often neglected by the scholarship or erroneously viewed as stepping stones towards ‘deeper’ multilateralism.     

东北经济区人地关系地域系统区划的初步研究

本文以东北经济区自然、经济和社会文化的地域分异特征为基础,以人地相互作用理论为指导,通过探讨人地关系地域系统区划的原则和方法,对东北经济区人地关系地域系统的区划做了初步研究。     

竞争性区域主义与区域建构研究展望

随着全球化的不断深入,竞争性区域主义开始盛行于全球各地,并掀起区域建构的热潮。本研究对西方学术界的竞争性区域主义和区域建构理论进行了系统综述,内容涉及社会建构的区域、空间规划在区域建构中的作用、区域建构的阶段和区域建构中利益相关者的冲突与博弈等方面。在此基础上,对我国城市竞争和空间规划等相关研究进行了综述,对我国竞争性区域主义与区域建构研究进行了展望。     

东北经济区对外通道研究

基于东北区在东北亚地区的特殊地位与作用,本文从东北亚区域系统的角度,对东北区对外通道的现状、特点及其发展趋势进行了深入研究,认为东北经济区在向市场经济的转轨过程中,必须加大与东北亚地区经济合作的力度,而通道建设是个关键。     

从欧洲共同体看亚太地区经济合作的发展趋势

本文以欧洲共同体的形成、发展为背景,对亚太地区经济合作的条件和前景进行初步探讨,并对中国在地区合作中的地位和作用进行初步分析。     

The privatisation of maritime security in Southeast Asia: the impact on regional security cooperation

This paper examines the involvement of new modes of governance (NMoG)/new actors, in establishing new regional regulatory frameworks in Southeast Asia. The basis for this discussion is a framework suggested by Kanishka Jayasuriya who argues that the activities of NMoG can facilitate the establishment of such regional regulatory frameworks. Concentrating on maritime services provided by one new actor, Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs), this paper suggests that the current activities and working practices of PMSCs in Southeast Asia are more likely to undermine regional security cooperation and regional governance, thus challenging some of the tenets of Jayasuriya's framework.     

现代中国地方主义的政治解读

“地方主义”一词,20世纪20年代初在中国出现,其后至今被较多地使用;中外关于地方主义的阐释也颇为复杂;依据这些阐释和对“地方主义”一词的解构,结合现代中国的实际,地方主义的内涵应是地方心理观念、地方政治意识、地方政治行为及其思维和行为模式这样一个结构。关于现代中国地方主义的界定,国家的基本法律制度和政治制度应是基本标准;中央政策是一个重要标准;国家的政治传统是一个参照的方面。界定的立足点应在于：它必须出自地方,是地方的意识和行为;它的基本方面是地方对中央;它的本质是地方同中央争权夺利。     

新区域主义视角下长株潭城市群区域一体化过程与影响因素

在新区域主义理论视角下,借鉴城市引力模型、经济网络结构模型和比较集中系数的方法,对长株潭城市群区域一体化进行分析。结果表明：长株潭城市群区域一体化水平在不同的时代背景下存在显著差异,其变化过程呈现出“高-低-高”的“V”字型特征。可划分为三个阶段：第一个阶段是1980年到1990年区域一体化程度较高的阶段,后计划经济是其发展的时代背景;第二个阶段是1990年到2000年由计划经济向社会主义市场经济转轨,是区域一体化的低谷阶段;第三个阶段是在2000年之后,随着社会主义市场经济的确立,城市群进入区域一体化程度更高的阶段。长株潭城市群区域一体化影响因素逐步由政府力量为主转为市场力量为主,呈现出明显的新区域主义特征。     

Towards Asian regional functional futures: bringing Mitrany back in?

In the early years of the twenty-first century, Asian regionalism is at a crossroads. While the region is home to a broad array of multilateral organisations, the record of these bodies in fostering effective and legitimate cooperation has been decidedly weak. Drawing on insights from the work of David Mitrany on international cooperation, this article contends that the key problem facing Asian regionalism is a predilection for ‘top-down’ rather than ‘bottom-up’ regionalism strategies. These top-down strategies have involved efforts to find a single institutional design for regional cooperation (similar to the experience of Europe), which has been hindered by geopolitical rivalries and a lack of shared consensus around what constitutes the ‘Asian region’. By considering the contours of interstate competition in Asia, the track record of its existing regionalism efforts and insights from comparative regional studies, it is instead argued that Asia's future is one of regions rather than a single region. As Mitrany suggests, the unique geopolitical context in Asia means that functionally discrete and variegated strategies are likely to provide a more effective basis for regional cooperation. Indeed, trends towards such a functional approach to regionalism are already becoming evident in Asia today.     

Internationalisation of the Chinese subnational state and capital: the case of Yunnan and the Greater Mekong Subregion

This article examines the participation of China's Yunnan Province in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) in order to understand the dynamics behind the regionalisation and internationalisation strategies adopted by a Chinese subnational state. It argues that the Yunnan case demonstrates the outflow of state capital—both national and provincially based—to have been instrumental in harnessing Beijing's and Kunming's political support for programs of subregional economic cooperation. This political support has led to a state capital alliance underpinning the economic expansion of provincial state capital into the GMS. It also argues that subregional governance arrangements, such as those featuring in the GMS, embed the competitive advantage of state capital through new forms of extra-territorial governance that ostensibly de-emphasises the political dimensions of state capital. The internationalisation of Yunnan subnational state is reflected in its political strategy of subregional governance. These changes point to complex rescaling of not just national state but also subnational states in Asia that find expression in variegated regional and subregional political projects.     

The global and regional constitution of nations: the view from East Asia

ABSTRACT. While the origins of nationalism are sought in global historical trends, few analysts have shown how nations themselves are constituted and re‐shaped by circulating global power, ideas and models. The view from East Asia shows that these circulations are mediated by regional developments and interactions which bind these nations together in rivalry and interdependence. The histories of China, Japan and Korea have been closely tied together since the end of the nineteenth century and, with a gap of about thirty years during the Cold War, have intensified once again. The global and regional constitution of nations produces a dialectic between its global form and aspirations and misrecognition of this constitution arising from the self‐perception of nationalism as historically immanent. This tension between the global constitution and national misrecognition contributes to the tenacity of nationalism. It also allows us to get a better grasp of the relationship between historical change and structure in nationalism and the relationship between state and popular nationalisms in the countries of the region.     

Benevolent hegemon,neighborhood bully,or regional security provider? Russia’s efforts to promote regional integration after the 2013–2014 Ukraine crisis

Russia has tried to use economic incentives and shared historical and cultural legacies to entice post-Soviet states to join its regional integration efforts. The Ukraine crisis exposed the weaknesses of this strategy, forcing Russia to fall back on coercive means to keep Kiev from moving closer to the West. Having realized the limits of its economic and soft power, will Russia now try to coerce post-Soviet states back into its sphere of influence? Fears of such an outcome overestimate Russia’s ability to use coercion and underestimate post-Soviet states capacity to resist. Rather than emerging as a regional bully, Russia is trying to push Eurasian integration forward by becoming a regional security provider. The article relates these efforts to the larger literature on regional integration and security hierarchies – bridging the two bodies of theory by arguing that regional leaders can use the provision of security to promote economic integration. Despite initial signs of success, we believe that the new strategy will ultimately fail. Eurasian integration will continue to stagnate as long as Russia’s economic and soft power remain weak because Russia will be unable to address the economic and social problems that are at the root of the region’s security problems.     

Population–development debate revisited: evidence from Asian countries

This study revisits an on-going debate regarding the nature of relationship between population growth and economic development. It has selected 12 Asian countries as a case study to examine the possible existence of a significant relationship between population expansion and economic development in these countries. Empirical findings indicated that, contrary to popular beliefs, there is a significant positive relationship between the variables. This suggests that population growth has been beneficial to economic development in the region and not detrimental.     

Transport Infrastructure and Regional Integration in the Middle East

The soft aspects of the infrastructure of regionalism in the Middle East have previously been studied, while the impact of the region’s hard infrastructure, in particular transport infrastructure, has received little attention. This paper contributes to the study of regionalism in the Middle East by investigating the relationship between hard infrastructure and economic integration. It analyzes whether the state of domestic and cross‐border transport infrastructure in the region promotes regional trade. This is done by addressing the following sub‐questions: 1) What is the condition of domestic and cross‐border transport infrastructure in the Middle East? And 2) What is the relationship between domestic and cross‐border transport infrastructure and regional trade in the Middle East? These questions are answered by examining Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Turkey as representative samples of the broader region. It is argued that regionalism relies on the development of domestic and cross‐border transport infrastructure and where the latter is limited, regionalism cannot deepen. The study concludes that domestic and cross‐border transport infrastructure performance is weak in several of the countries studied and that this weakness hinders regional economic integration regardless of the level of the region’s soft infrastructure.     

The prehistory of the Austronesian-speaking peoples: A view from language

Prior to the European colonial expansions of the past several centuries the Austronesian (AN) language family had the greatest geographical extent of any on earth, including in its territory areas that had never previously been settled. Although predominantly distributed in a tropical or subtropical environment, AN-speaking peoples exhibit a wide range of physical types, material cultures, and types of social and political organization. This paper addresses ways in which linguistic comparison can contribute toward answering such questions as the following: Where was the AN homeland? What was the nature of early AN material culture, social and political organization? What can we infer about early AN pathology? How did early AN speakers view the spirit world? It concludes with a discussion of culture loss, many examples of which can be inferred both from the Pacific and from insular Southeast Asia.     

Regulatory regionalism and anti-money-laundering governance in Asia

With the intensification of the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF's) worldwide campaign to promote anti-money-laundering regulation since the late 1990s, all Asian states except North Korea have signed up to its rules and have established a regional institution—the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering—to promote and oversee the implementation of FATF's 40 Recommendations in the region. This article analyses the FATF regime, making two key claims. First, anti-money-laundering governance in Asia reflects a broader shift to regulatory regionalism, particularly in economic matters, in that its implementation and functioning depend upon the rescaling of ostensibly domestic agencies to function within a regional governance regime. Second, although this form of regulatory regionalism is established in order to bypass the perceived constraints of national sovereignty and political will, it nevertheless inevitably becomes entangled within the socio-political conflicts that shape the exercise of state power more broadly. Consequently, understanding the outcomes of regulatory regionalism involves identifying how these conflicts shape how far and in what manner global regulations are adopted and implemented within specific territories. This argument is demonstrated by a case study of Myanmar.