China And The Global Politics Of Regionalization

This volume examines the prominent role of China in global politics and the relevance of the 'new regionalism' paradigm to China's international outreach. It provides a comprehensive and critical assessment of China's impact on the global politics of regionalization, offers a novel application of analytical models, investigates the aspects of the Chinese practice of regionalization that set it apart, and demonstrates China's transformative potential in international life. Addressing the need to 're-Orient' the research and policy agenda of international relations, this comprehensive study demonstrates both the lack of language to engage with existing norms and standards and the difficulty of applying them to an evaluation of the global politics of China's 'non-Western' international agency.

China has experienced the world's fastest economic growth for over a decade. It is likely that within a generation, China will have the world's largest economy. Yet, at the moment when China looks set to regain its former power, serious questions have to be asked about the continuing integrity of China. The challenges posed by economic reform, succession politics, and new forces of political liberalism are compounded by boundary uncertainties, as China adopts a strategy of greater interdependence with the regional and global economy. The writers of this book analyse the factors that might lead to and that might prevent the break-up of China. They provide key data about economic activity and external connections of the major regional forces. Their analysis provides essential reading for those concerned with the prospects for China, and the future stability of East Asia.

Textbook on regionalism and its role in a global marketplace, ideal for students of IR and globalisation.

The emerging role of regional systems of relations is an important feature of the new global politics. While the European Union is the most advanced case, most other parts of the world display at least the beginnings of regional systems. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the contributors examine these processes from a comparative perspective, concentrating on the following questions: what constitute a region? how is the historical process of region-formation unfolding? what motives and factors underlie this drive to regionalisation? what forms a regional awareness and institutionalisation are emerging, and where? what are the future prospects?

With featuring far-reaching diversities and disparities among the regional states in their political, economic and social systems and cultural and religious orientations, East Asia is a microcosm of international society at large. Nevertheless, there are unique dynamics unfolding in East Asia at the turn of the twenty-first century, namely the rise of China as a contender for regional and global hegemony and a set of collective initiatives to integrate the region into a harmonious community. This book provides new arguments on China’s rise and the transformation of East Asia and analyzes the foreign policy behavior of the regional states and relations among them. In doing so, the contributors show why and how China is rising, and how China’s rise shapes the emerging regional structures and institutions in East Asia. Furthermore, given the East Asian context where the world’s second and third largest economies coexist with much smaller states and with China’s ascendency likely to continue, this book challenges the pervasive dichotomy of hegemony and community. This allows for a fuller and more nuanced account of China’s role and the shifting regional policies in East Asia in which hegemonic cooperation does not necessarily lead to a hegemonic form of regional order. Presenting strategic, political, economic and historical perspectives on China’s changing role in the region and the development of regionalism, China’s Rise and Regional Integration in East Asia will be of great interest to students and scholars of Chinese politics, Asian politics, international relations and regionalism.

With its long history of internal divisiveness and its intersecting cultural and linguistic cleavages, East Asia is undoubtedly a complex area. However, the idea of East Asia as a regional entity is one that is relatively recent – a concept that gained momentum after the financial crisis that rocked the region in the 1990s. In recent years, East Asia has become considerably more interdependent, connected and cohesive. This increased cohesiveness has been driven by a dense network of trade and investments, technology sharing and communication, among many other variables and has been reflected in the increasing institutionalisation of regional mechanisms like the ASEAN. Regionalism is not, however, entirely about economic interdependence. In today’s day and age, it means not only overarching social networks and a regional identity, but also strategic thinking that recognises common security interests. This book takes into account the regional discourses of two of East Asia’s biggest players – the United States and China. While the former has been a power to reckon with, albeit “externally”, deeply entrenched in the region since the end of the Second World War, the rise of China in the 21st century and its emergence as the largest power in East Asia has brought a new perspective to East Asian regionalism. In 2010, the United States began reasserting itself in East Asia, bringing into sharp focus the ideological differences between itself and China as each vied to shape the architecture of East Asian security. There is no doubt that heightened American interest comes at a time when China’s own views of regionalism have become noticeably less cooperative. While balance of power politics is one way to look at the geopolitical tug-of-war in East Asia, there are questions that have not yet been answered. How do the two countries look at a region that is so important for them? How has that perception influenced their foreign policy within the same arena? More importantly, how do they define East Asia? This book studies American and Chinese regional discourses from the end of the Cold War to the present day in order to highlight the rationale behind the natural balance of power politics between an established power and a rising one, and its subsequent effects on security regionalism in East Asia.

In this book, the authors highlight the influence of China in the region of East Asia and the significance of sub-regions within it, particularly the sub-region formed, or imagined, by Taiwan, Hong Kong, and their links with south China. In Part One, they analyse development by reference to the neo-governance of globalisation and regionalisation as well as the interplay of cultural and ethical values within East Asia. In Part II, they turn to the dynamics of sub-regional development and the role of China. The picture which emerges is complex and graphic, nuanced and intricate. East Asia is a focal point for the contestation of forces framed by globalisation, regionalisation, subregionalisation, state, and cultural values -- a changing morphology in which openness is associated with export-led growth and economic integration. It is a region in which change is at once welcomed and distrusted, a region where states are not merely powerful but authoritarian, one in which business is assumed to lead politics, and where old rivalries are typically transcended by desires to create new economic opportunities.

In contrast to most studies of regionalism, Grugel and Hout focus on countries not currently at the core of the global economy, including Brazil and Mercosur, Chile, South East Asia, China, South Africa, the Maghreb, Turkey and Australia. What seems clear from this original analysis is that far from being peripheral, these countries are forming regional power blocs of their own, which could go on to hold the balance of power in the new world order.