南韓在東亞區域建制中的角色：中等國家推動區域主義之個案研究 - 政大學術集成

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(1)亞太研究英語博士學位學程 International Doctoral Program in Asia-Pacific Studies (IDAS) 國立政治大學 College of Social Sciences, National Chengchi University (NCCU) 博士論文 Ph.D. Dissertation. 立. 治政論文題目 Topic 大. ‧ 國. 學. South Korea’s Role in Building an East Asian Community:. A Middle Power Advancing Regionalism. ‧ er. io. sit. y. Nat. n. a l Submitted to National Chengchi A Ph.D. Dissertation i v University n C In Fulfillment of the Requirements for U the Degree of he i h n c g Doctor of Philosophy in Asia-Pacific Studies Candidate: José Guerra Vio Supervisor: Dr. Hwei-luan Poong. January 2014.

(2) Summary This dissertation examines South Korea as an emergent middle power in East Asia, and how this is being reflected on its diplomatic behavior in relation to the processes of regionalism. The literature of middle powers suggests that countries such as South Korea can play useful roles to promote cooperation in several specific areas. In East Asia, the need for regional institutionalization became evident since the Asian Financial Crisis (AFC) of 1997-98, yet the attempts of China and Japan for regional leadership are often viewed as problematic. Hence, this research confirmed its main hypothesis which points to South Korea as a capable middle power to lead East Asian regionalism. Thus, in those particular instances where. Korea. has chosen to display. 政治大 the advancement in the processes of regional institutionalization in East Asia was 立 generally observed.. middlepowermanship – as a catalyst, facilitator and/or manager of regionalist projects –. ‧ 國. 學. In doing so, this research looked into South Korea’s foreign policy behavior towards East Asian regional processes and towards Northeast Asia as a subregion.. ‧. Regional institution-building attempts, as well as the creation of regional governance were the main aspects observed; hence this research falls within the theoretical. Nat. related. to. neo-functionalism,. institutionalism. io. sit. theories. y. boundaries of international political economy and international relations. Neoliberal and. especially. inter-. er. governmentalism were considered to understand regionalism, while preferring a. al. n. iv n C methodology was favored, including withU h einterviews i policy-makers and experts, as h n c g well as archival research of primary and secondary sources. Ultimately, this study has constructivist point of view to explain the relations among states. A qualitative type of. both practical and theoretical contributions, since the literature on middle powers does not often consider applications to regionalism, a process which is usually advanced and led by great powers. Thus, study conclusions suggest several improved practical understandings of East Asian regionalism in general, recommendations for its continuing advancement and possible future strategies for South Korea’s role in it as the regional middle power.. Keywords: Middle Power, Regionalism, East Asia, Northeast Asia, South Korea, Middlepowermanship, Regional Institutionalization.. ii.

(3) Acknowledgements To carry out this study, as part of the graduation process to complete my Doctoral Degree in Asia-Pacific Studies - with a focus on East Asian Political Economy and International Relations - was certainly an arduous task that could have not been completed without the support and help of many to whom I am deeply grateful. Special thanks are owed to my dissertation supervisor, Dr. Hwei-luan Poong, from National Chengchi University in Taipei. Without her guidance, useful insights, constant help in logistics and overall patience, as well as suggestions; it would have been much more difficult for this research to reach its objectives. I would also like to thank Dr. Evan Berman for his constant encouragement and support not only in the process of carrying. 政治大 excellent educator in and outside the classroom while being my professor in NCCU. 立 Much gratitude is also owed to all the members of this dissertation's evaluating. out this dissertation project from the beginning, as former IDAS Director, but also as an. ‧ 國. 學. committee - Dr. Philip Hsu from National Taiwan University, Dr. Cheng-Yi Lin from Academia Sinica, as well as Dr. Ping-Yin Kuan and Dr. Ming Lee from NCCU - for. ‧. agreeing to take part in this evaluation process and also for their helpful suggestions in the different stages of this project. In addition, this research could not have been. Nat. sit. y. possible without the platform given to me by Yonsei University's GSIS in South Korea and my time spent there as visiting student. I shall mentioned particularly Professor Dr.. io. er. Sukhee Han, who among others, helped in the process of fieldwork in Seoul, as well as. al. n. iv n C valuable insights and opportunitiesh that facilitated this research e n g c h i U while in South Korea. In addition I must thank the officials at the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat for the ASAN Institute for Policy Studies and many of its research fellows who provided. the three countries of Northeast Asia - China, Japan and South Korea - for opening the doors of this nascent organization in Seoul to me; and those officials of the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade that agree to meet with me, and went out of their ways to facilitate the gathering of data for this research. Special thanks are also due to all those individuals - officials and foreign policy experts - interviewed for this study as primary sources of information. Ultimately, this research was also possible thanks to the help given by National Chengchi University in Taiwan, and its IDAS program to which I belong. Without that support, in the form of funding and scholarships, it would have been impossible to cover all the costs of carrying out this project entirely by. iii.

(4) myself. Thus, I must mention current Dean of the College of Social Sciences, Dr. YihChyi Chuang and current IDAS Director Dr. David Holm. Finally, I would also like to thank my dear friends in both Taipei and Seoul, some of whom have contributed to a great extend with the moral and emotional support that I believe is required when one is in a foreign land trying to pursue a career. Last but not least I must thank Benoit and the rest of my family, of course, for all their unconditional love and understanding, especially in the last few years.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. iv. i n U. v.

(5) Contents Tables and Figures. viii. Abbreviations. ix. Chapter I: Point of Departure and Main Perspectives. 1. 1.1. Introduction: East Asian Institutional Gap. 1. 1.1.1. The Issue of Regional Leadership and South Korea. 3. 1.1.2. Outline of Dissertation. 6. 1.2. Research Point of Departure. 8. 1.2.1. Research Questions and Variables. 12. 政治大 1.4. Theoretical Standpoint of this Study 立 1.4.1. The Neoliberal Perspective 1.3. Research Contributions. 15 19 19. ‧ 國. 學. 1.4.2. The Social Constructivist Approach. 1.5. Regionalism and East Asian Regional Integration. ‧. 1.5.1. East Asian Community: Chasing an Ideal. 1.6. Expectations of Research. 24. 28 31. Nat. Chapter II: Analytical Framework. n. al. 2.1.1. Regional Institutions: The Social Venue. Ch. 2.1.3. Regional Identity: A Bonde forn theg Community chi U 2.1.2. Regional Governance: The System of Rule. er. io. 2.1. Regional Institutionalization: Three Embedded Processes. sit. y. 37. v ni. 2.2. Conceptualizing Middle Powers. 39 39 41 43 45. 49. 2.2.1. South Korea as a Middle Power. 55. 2.2.2. Middlepowermanship: About Leadership, Public Goods and Status. 60. 2. 3. Middle Powers and Regionalism in the World. 68. 2.3.1. The European Process: Small Powers Coalition under Great Powers Leadership. 69. 2.3.2. Regionalism in the Americas: Great and Middle Powers Association. 74. 2.3.3. East Asian Regionalism: Great Powers Awkwardness, Middle Powers Opportunity. 79. 2.4. Main Relationship to Observe: Middle Powers in Regionalism. v. 82.

(6) Chapter III: Research Design. 89. 3.1. Operationalization of Variables. 89. 3.1.1. Explanatory Variable: Middlepowermanship. 89. 3.1.2. Dependent Variable: Regional Institutionalization. 91. 3.2. Theoretical Relationship among Variables. 94. 3.2.1. Building up Theory: Causality and Validity. 94. 3.2.2. Hypotheses Formulation. 98. 3.3. Methodology. 101. 3.3.1. Empirical Setting for Data Collection. 102. 3.3.2. Research Stages and Methods. 105. 治政 Chapter IV: Korea and the Nascent Regionalism in East 大Asia 4.1. Seoul’s Early Signs of立 Leadership. 115. 4.2. South Korea’s Shift to Modern Regionalism. 122. 116. ‧ 國. 學. 4.2.1. Kim Dae-jung's Vision: The East Asian Community Foundations. 4.3. The EAS Formation: Korea and the Sino-Japanese Rivalry. 125. 130. ‧. 4.3.1. Regional Powers' Competition and the Failed EAFTA. 4.4. East Asian Community in Crisis: The Korean EAVG II Initiative. 134. Nat. y. 139. n. al. 144. er. io. of Korea. sit. 4.5. East Asian Institutional Darwinism and the Complex Positioning. Ch. i n U. v. Chapter V: Korea in the Emerging Institutionalization of Northeast Asia. 155. 5.1. Precedents for Multilateral Regional Cooperation in NEA. 155. engchi. 5.2. Korea's Changing Strategy for Regional Cooperation: The Last Two Administrations. 161. 5.2.1. Roh Moo-hyun's Northeast Asian Focus: Bridging, not Balancing. 161. 5.2.2. Lee Myung-bak's Broader Strategic Approach: Korea Goes Global. 165. 5.3. The Emergent Institutionalization of NEA. 172. 5.3.1. Intergovernmentalism and Functionalism driving NEA Institutionalization. 175. 5.4. Korea Advancing Trilateral Institutionalization: The TCS in Seoul 5.4.1. Functioning and Activities of the TCS. 184 190. 5.5. Trilateral FTA: Korea as Catalyst, Facilitator and Manager. 199. 5.6. The Bleak Side of Regionalism in NEA. 206. vi.

(7) Chapter VI: Final Results, Reflections and Recommendations. 217. 6.1. Lessons from the EU Process. 217. 6.2. Cracking the Leadership Puzzle: Finding the Missing Piece. 222. 6.3. Korea as a Middle Power at the Center of East Asian Regionalism. 229. 6.3.1. Managing the Sino-Japanese Rivalry in NEA. 233. 6.3.2. Closing the North/South Institutional Gap: Building the East Asian Community. 240. 6.4. Obstacles and Recommendations for Korea and East Asia to Advance Regionalism. 249. 立. Conclusions. ‧ 國. Books. 267. 學. References. 政治大. ‧. Journal Articles Book Chapters. y. sit. n. al. 1. Questionnaire used for First Stage of Interviews. Ch. engchi U. 2. Questionnaire used for Second Stage of Interviews 3. List of Interviewees. er. io. Annexes. Nat. Other Sources. v ni. 271 271 272 273 275. 277 277 279 280. 4. Official Documents Employed and Forums Attended. 283. 5. Relevant Websites Consulted. 285. vii.

(8) Tables and Figures Tables Table 1: Changes in International System and Institutional Forms. 36. Table 2: South Korea's Involvement in PKOs. 59. Table 3: Operationalization of Explanatory Variable. 91. Table 4: Design of Questionnaire for Interviews. 107. Table 5: Detail of Research Process. 112. 政治大. 立. 學. ‧ 國. Figures. Figure 1: Research Main Proposal. ‧. 78. y. 50. 93. sit. Figure 2: Classic Pyramid of Power and Hierarchies. 99. Figure 3: Regionalism and Leadership in the World. Nat. Figure 4: Operationalization of Dependent Variable. io. al. er. Figure 5: Main Theoretical Relationship among Variables. v ni. n. Figure 6: President Lee's “Global Korea” Foreign Policy Strategy. Ch. engchi U. Figure 7: Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat Structure. viii. 12. 171 192.

(9) Abbreviations Asian Bond Market Initiative Asian Development Bank ASEAN Economic Community Asian Financial Crisis ASEAN Ministerial Meeting APT Macroeconomic Research Office Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ASEAN Plus Three ASEAN Regional Forum Association of Southeast Asian Nations ASEAN Plus One ASEAN Plus Three ASEAN Plus Six Asia-Europe Meeting Asian-Pacific Council Chinese Communist Party Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in East Asia Credit Guarantee and Investment Facility China, Korea and Japan Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific Democratic People's Republic of Korea East Asian Economic Caucus East Asian Free Trade Area/Agreement East Asian Community East Asia Forum East Asia Summit East Asia Study Group East Asia Vision Group East Asia Vision Group II European Community European Economic Community Economic Partnership Agreement European Union Foreign Direct Investment Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation Free Trade Agreement General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Gross Domestic Product Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security of Korea. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. ABMI ADB AEC AFC AMM AMRO APEC APT ARF ASEAN ASEAN+1 ASEAN+3 ASEAN+6 ASEM ASPAC CCP CEPEA CGIF CKJ CMIM CSCAP DPRK EAEC EAFTA EAC EAF EAS EASG EAVG EAVG II EC EEC EPA EU FDI FEALAC FTA GATT GDP GGGI IFANS. Ch. engchi. ix. i n U. v.

(10) International Organizations International Monetary Fund International Political Economy International Relations Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization Korea Institute for International Economic Policy Korean National Diplomatic Academy Korea International Cooperation Agency Mercado Común del Sur (Southern Cone Common Market) Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Korea North American Free Trade Agreement Northeast Asia Northeast Asia Subregional Program of Environmental Network for East Asian Think-Tanks Non-governmental Organizations Official Development Assistance Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Peace Keeping Operations People's Republic of China Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Republic of Korea Southeast Asia Six Party Talks Tripartite Environment Ministers' Meeting for CKJ Countries Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat for CKJ Countries Trans Pacific Partnership United Nations United States of America World Trade Organization. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. IGOs IMF IPE IR KEDO KIEP KNDA KOICA MERCOSUR MOFAT NAFTA NEA NEASPEC NEAT NGOs ODA OECD PKOs PRC RCEP ROK SEA SPT TEMM TCS TPP UN US WTO. Ch. engchi. x. i n U. v.

(11) Jose Guerra Vio. Chapter I: Point of Departure and Main Perspectives 1.1. Introduction: East Asian Institutional Gap The first decade of the 21st century witnessed the consolidation of regional integration as a major trend within the multiple processes of globalization. Certainly the economic and political maps of a post Cold War world have been redrawn. In this context, the booming economies of East Asia and the repeatedly voiced “Rise of China” have quickly transformed this region in the last three decades, making it today the most dynamic and fastest growing part of the world according to most economic indexes.. 政治大 Financial Crisis (AFC) in 立1997-98 showed that East Asian economies are highly But in contrast to Europe or The Americas, East Asia is a follower on institutional. mechanisms to promote and channel regional cooperation and integration. The Asian. regionalized by market-driven forces, (Munakata, 2003; Peng, 2004) and also. ‧ 國. 學. illustrated the necessity for building regional institutions to guarantee cooperation and further integration in order to face common problems and avoid other possible crises in. ‧. the future by setting up stabilizing mechanisms among the East Asian countries. (Manukata, 2003; Stubbs, 2002) This in the long term has fostered closer relations. y. Nat. sit. between countries that continue to be suspicious of each other, mainly due to the. io. er. creation of a nascent regional institutional architecture. In theory this allows reducing uncertainty while facilitating collective action and decision-making among member. al. n. iv n C h e nTheglong peace and thus promoting development. strategy of community building i U c hterm. countries in order to assist each other, which in turn helps to maintain security and. in East Asia – framed under the theoretical underpinnings of regionalism – is understood in these terms by both scholars and policy makers throughout the region. Nevertheless, there are many aspects and implications of regionalism in East Asia that have yet to be studied and analyzed by scholars, especially regarding the. region’s capacity of building a normative framework in order to constrain certain undesirable unilateral actions, or to coordinate responses to increasingly common problems. With regionalism becoming consolidated in the world as a major trend in the ‘objective reality’, but also as a field of study within the disciplines of International Relations (IR) and International Political Economy (IPE); and especially after the AFC, the need for a more institutionalized regional processes to build that overarching. 1.

(12) normative framework in East Asia became evident. Moreover, within some regional elite circles it is also increasingly seen as a way to counter the European and American blocs, particularly in economic but more and more in political aspects as well. The region has been lacking those mechanisms for cooperation based on geographic proximity and the de facto market-driven integration that has been in place since the late 1970s with the expansion of the Japanese business model to the rest of the region and the highly regionalized production networks and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows. Certainly, the process of institutionalization in East Asia constitutes a different experience from the process carried out in the West, particularly in Europe, where integration first began as a result of shared geographic, cultural and political concerns. (Munakata, 2002) In contrast, community-building in East Asia is still at a very. 政治大 continue to search for different ways to form a economic community as first step. Many 立 in the region, however, go even further and recognize that “the cultural connection preliminary stage, and its future remains uncertain. Indeed, East Asian countries. ‧ 國. 學. helps strengthen the community feeling among East Asian peoples and is very important for community building in East Asia.” (Zhang, 2006: 141). ‧. Regardless of its type or scope, community-building in East Asia has certainly been identified with having its own particular characteristics, governance and style of. Nat. sit. y. institutions; putting emphasis in the processes and consensus instead of binding commitments, and focusing in functional issue-specific areas or ad-hoc groupings. io. er. instead of more comprehensive frameworks.. This makes the process of East Asian. al. n. iv n C East Asia as a region is here combination of Southeast Asia, h eunderstood n g c hasi a U. regionalism drastically different from the one taking place among Western countries.. comprised by the ten countries involved in the process of institutionalization represented by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); and Northeast Asia (NEA), comprising China (including the territories of Hong Kong and Macau), Japan, the two Koreas and Taiwan. While the ASEAN framework for regional cooperation is to some extent more institutionalized as it was founded in 1967; due to historical and geopolitical issues, Northeast Asia has lagged behind and only recently begun to institutionalize the interactions between its main players. Institutions like ASEAN Plus Three (APT), involving the ten Southeast members and the three big economies of NEA (e.g. China-South Korea and Japan or the so called CKJ group); the Trilateral Cooperation Meetings, involving only the “plus three”; and the East Asia Summit (EAS), despite its inclusion of non-East Asian members; are considered to be. 2.

(13) Jose Guerra Vio. the most relevant institutional processes in the attempt to build a regional community in East Asia within the last decade, encompassing altogether the ASEAN countries and the big three NEA economies.1 With the exception of the Trilateral Meetings process among the CKJ group in NEA, most of the regional frameworks revolve around ASEAN and have the Southeast Asian countries as the hub for a possible East Asian Community. There is, therefore, a huge institutional gap between the most advanced and industrialized Northeast and the less developed Southeast. This fact remains a kind of paradox when it comes to the study of regionalism, which usually sees a higher level of institutionalization among the most developed members or bigger economies, which normally constitute the core of regional integration in its primary stages. As it has been the case elsewhere, the most. 政治大 usually considered to have the legitimacy, as well as the resources to drive the process 立 forward; while the smaller economies accommodate to them and gradually jump on the industrialized countries with bigger economies - namely the regional powers - are. ‧ 國. 學. bandwagon of a process that has been already started or partially consolidated. Clearly this has not been the case in East Asia, where the two regional powers that are. ‧. concentrated in NEA have been very slow – for several reasons that are unique to this part of the world – in pushing for ways to institutionalize their interactions and. Nat. sit. y. cooperation. If a regional community is meant to be formed in East Asia this. io. n. al. er. progression is necessary.. i n U. 1.1.1. The Issue of Regional Leadership and South Korea. Ch. engchi. v. A lot has been written and theorized in regards to the question of regional leadership when it comes to East Asian regionalism, where many scholars initially wondered and expected China and/or Japan to play a similar role that Germany and France in the evolution of the EU had played; and still play today as recent events continue to demonstrate. However, because of historical and geopolitical circumstances,. 1. The ten ASEAN states are: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The APT forum took form in a more institutionalized way as an outcome of the AFC over a decade ago, and includes the ten ASEAN members plus China, Japan and South Korea. Since 2005, the EAS appeared as the most recent institutionalized attempt of regional cooperation; however its membership is not exclusively East Asian since besides the previous 13 countries, India, Australia and New Zealand and most recently the US and Russia have also taken part of the meetings. In the meantime, Taiwan and North Korea remain isolated of all these processes due to political differences regarding their regional status.. 3.

(14) competitive behaviour, mistrust and territorial disputes, the two regional powers have not been able to advance together the institutionalization process of their region. The objective conditions of this claim are clear and today are widely recognized: while the scars left by the war in Europe were as deep and severe as the ones left in Northeast Asia, in the last sixty years “European states have found ways to bury old animosities and work together to create a unified political order. Old adversaries have managed to move beyond their conflicts (…) The Asian experience, in contrast, suggests that political reconciliation is a far more elusive goal.” (Ikenberry and Mastanduno, 2003: 11) Although from a Japanese point of view many argue the problem has already been solved, as Japan changed its constitution to prevent its future militarization and. 政治大 still prevalent among the Korean and Chinese elites and publics. Indeed, Ikenberry and 立 Mastanduno (2003) emphasize on the importance of perceptions and how they often concentrated in promoting an image of a “civilian” great power; in reality suspicion is. ‧ 國. 學. negatively affect the relationship between China, Japan and the two Koreas. There is a consensus among experts in this region that Chinese and Koreans are dissatisfied with. ‧. the way Japanese have dealt with their wartime aggression and atrocities. As it will be exposed in this study, the particular issue of regional reconciliation remains the main. Nat. sit. y. obstacle for institutionalization of NEA in particular, differing from the European case and the way Germany dealt with the war guilt and its political engagement of the region,. io. er. as well to the symbols of militarism that in the case of Japan have not been entirely. al. n. iv n C U of sovereignty still has these processes has to do with the h supremacy e n g cthaththei principle. removed. (Ikenberry and Mastanduno, 2003: 12) Moreover, another big obstacle in. in this part of the world. This issue and how it affects regional institutionalization in this part of the world will be further exposed in the following chapters. Nevertheless, here it suffices to say that because of the rigid approach to sovereignty present in Northeast Asia, the institutionalization of regional cooperation and collective action between Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo is often regarded as very hard to achieve, posing big challenges if an East Asian Community is in sight. Adding up to the history issue, Timmermann addresses three of those challenges that are thought to be necessary to tackle by any kind of NEA institutionalization process: 1) solving a set of territorial and maritime disputes and conflicts over access to natural resources; 2) facing the shifting balance of power due to the rise of China and the de facto economic regionalization and interdependence; and 3) taking up the issue of leadership in the region, while managing. 4.

(15) Jose Guerra Vio. the United States involvement. It is evident these challenges for Northeast Asian institutionalization are deeply intertwined, and the possible ways in which these are tackled will determined the form of regional institutionalization that will take place in this region. (Timmermann, 2008) Clearly, in any process of regional integration and institutionalization the issue of leadership is a key element especially if the aim is to pursue a regional community, as it is assumed in this study. Higgott and Timmermann argue this will help the region to enhance their political leverage vis-à-vis the United States, for instance, which remains a major player in this region despite the fact it does not geographically belong to it. “For East Asia to narrow the asymmetry with the United States, it needs to enhance its collective institutional decision-making capabilities. For this to occur,. 政治大 most important regional policy for the future.” (Higgott and Timmermann, 2008: 54) In 立 sum, because of the objective conditions just described, that have impeded the great endogenous regional leadership needs to strengthen. How this might be achieved is the. ‧ 國. 學. regional powers to cooperate and lead a process of institutionalization, Korea2 appears as the most suitable legitimate candidate to take up this role in Northeast Asia, bridging. ‧. between China and Japan. Rozman explains: “South Korea is the natural centre of Northeast Asia and is best positioned to draw others together. President Kim Dae-jung. Nat. sit. y. became the leading advocate of ASEAN+3 and also the EAS; and President Roh Moohyun took office making a strong appeal for regionalism in NEA.” (2008: 85) This. io. er. author adds that the future of regional arrangements like these depends more on the. al. n. iv n C Southeast Asia “bridge” for regionalism h e nworked g c hfori aUtime, but it seems unlikely to industrialized Northeast Asian countries than in the ASEAN 10 members. The. carry it much further. (Rozman, 2008: 90). These are the kind of issues this dissertation will be dealing with. An East Asiawide regional framework requires the institutionalization of Northeast Asia with endogenous leadership driving the process. South Korea - which is in the following chapters characterized as the regional middle power - has shown clear signs of exerting a kind of regional leadership that both China and Japan have not being able to pursue in terms of advancing the processes associated to the institutionalization of regional frameworks for cooperation and institution-building. This study will show how Korea has positioned itself as an emergent middle power at the center of East Asian 2. The term 'South Korea', 'Korea' or 'ROK' will be used interchangeably hereafter to refer to the Republic of Korea.. 5.

(16) regionalism. South Korea's capacity to display middle power behaviour, as it will be exposed, is widely recognized throughout the entire region, and Seoul has indeed achieved certain legitimacy to practice what will be described as intellectual and entrepreneurial leadership. In the last decade Seoul has had the opportunity to experiment with that kind of behaviour that middle powers usually display as foreign policy options, particularly within the APT framework in East Asia and the Northeast Asian Trilateral Cooperation Mechanism. Some of these initiatives that show Korean regional leadership to be exposed are the East Asian Vision Group (EAVG) and the East Asia Study Group (EASG), which set up the ideational foundation for an East Asian Community over a decade ago. Several other more recent initiatives and Seoul's long term commitment with the achievement of the goals stated for the APT framework. 政治大 the Northeast Asian subregion. are also presented as evidence in the following chapters. In addition, Korea's to advance the 立 institutionalization of the Trilateral Cooperation Mechanism among the CKJ countries role. within. 學. ‧ 國. instrumental. is also analyzed in depth, as evidence supporting the hypothesized capacity of Korea to advance regional institutionalization among the three Northeast Asian countries and. ‧. thus in East Asia as a whole. This has been done by exerting a kind of regional leadership as a middle power to push for the building of regional frameworks in a. Nat. sit. y. context when regional powers - China and Japan - are not in a legitimate position to lead. Furthermore, other cases will be presented as well in order to expose how and. io. er. when, instead of consolidating or advancing regionalism towards the building of an. al. n. iv n C U in East Asia. The EAS lack of leadership did not serve well regionalist h ethen g c h i process East Asian Community, the disagreements among the two regional powers and Korea's. formation and the controversy over its membership, and the divisive issue of an East. Asian FTA base on the ASEAN +3 or +6 formulas are some examples to be unfolded in the following chapters that illustrate how the Sino-Japanese rivalry has slowdown the process of regional integration in this part of the world.. 1.1.2. Outline of Dissertation. This dissertation is divided in six chapters and each of them organized in subsections. This first chapter introduces to the topic in question and serves as the point of departure for this research, presenting the main assumptions, research questions and variables, as well as the main theoretical perspectives from which to look at the issues to study. A. 6.

(17) Jose Guerra Vio. review of the process of East Asian regionalism is also carried out throughout this first chapter as a way to contextualized the main problematic. In chapter two, the conceptualization of the main variables is the main focus, leading to their working definitions after discussing them and the way they interact, in what is intended to be multifaceted analytical framework. The purpose here is to clarify these main concepts and their interactions, as main variables, while the way regionalism and middle powers have been previously studied is also exposed in this chapter, by drawing parallels with other parts of the world. Also in this chapter, South Korea is clearly identified and conceptualized as a middle power, and its implications are discussed. That discussion allows the methodological operationalization of variables in chapter three, where the building of the theory and the formulation of hypotheses for. 政治大 used in the process of fieldwork is presented and the different research stages are 立 outlined in detail. this research is also exposed. In a second part of chapter three, the actual methodology. ‧ 國. 學. Chapters four and five constitute the core analysis of this dissertation, where the results of the research and fieldwork are discussed. While chapter four focuses mainly. ‧. in Korea's role as an emergent middle power in the processes of regional institutionalization occurring at the East Asian-wide level - particularly in its early. Nat. sit. y. stages after the Asian Financial Crisis and throughout the following decade - the following chapter five highlights the role of Korea as a middle power and the. io. er. diplomatic behavior it has displayed in the context of Northeast Asia particularly. From. al. n. iv n C process of triangulation and cross-checking, h e n g ccombining h i U especially the official data. these two chapters onwards the results of this research are exposed and analyzed by a. collected throughout the fieldwork with the outcomes of the interviews carried out which, as said, constitute the most significant results of this qualitative type of study. Hence, quotations or references to the sources consulted for this research - particularly the interviewees - are widely employed in these chapters, acknowledging their subjectivity, of course. This is in fact addressed as much as possible by contrasting them with facts from the 'objective reality' and other official statements and reports. Particularly official data from the Korean government and from other regional institutional frameworks are employed to support or contrast what the interviewees have stated in their opinions. These are mainly official reports of some of the initiatives analyzed, like the EAVG, EASG, EAVG II, APT process, Trilateral Cooperation Mechanism, and even recent Diplomatic White Papers from the Korean government. 7.

(18) which help to provide that factual information to support or contrast the subjectivity that stems out of the interviews. Also, several seminars related to the topic during the fieldwork in Seoul attended by this author, as well as other academic work from other scholars that have written about some of the same issues are incorporated in these chapters, too, as secondary information. Ultimately, in order to achieve that process of triangulation, what the primary sources have said in the interviews is constantly contrasted with either those secondary sources, official data available or with different opinions from other interviewees on the same particular issue. Accordingly, the results of the interviews carried out to experts and foreign policy officials are not the only or exclusive source of information utilized in the following chapter, however they are indeed the most important and large part of the results and analysis, since it is believed. 政治大 data already available, thus adding a new level - in which perceptions matter - to 立 understand Korea's leadership role in advancing regionalism in East and Northeast Asia. by this author that this is exactly what helps distinguish this study from information and. ‧ 國. 學. This finally explain the emphasis given to what the interviewees say or think about the topics in question throughout these chapters.. ‧. Finally, chapter six is included with the intention of drawing some reflections and further analysis. In order to do so - and as the final outcomes for this dissertation -. Nat. sit. y. parallels with the paradigmatic integration and community building process carried out in Europe are drawn into attention throughout this chapter, as well as many of the. io. er. thoughts given by the several primary sources consulted. This is done in the hope to. al. n. iv n C recommendations for South Korea'shregional e n gstrategy c h i ofUpositioning itself as a confident better establish the prospects of East Asian regionalism in general; and the possible. and respectable middle power in East Asia and as a leader of its regionalist projects.. Ultimately, these reflections and further discussion made within the different sections of this last chapter aim at giving response to the research questions, and thus allowing to finally prove or discard the hypotheses set up for this study, all which is finally addressed in the conclusions section.. 1.2. Research Point of Departure. As mentioned, this research is grounded in IPE and IR. From the former it utilizes neoliberal theories close to the neo-functional, institutional and particularly the intergovernmental approaches to understand regionalism. From the latter it incorporates the. 8.

(19) Jose Guerra Vio. literature of middle powers to portray the ROK's role in East Asia, and it opts for a constructivist point of view to the relations among states, where perceptions are highly relevant. Furthermore, from the discipline of IR it also adopts a qualitative type of methodology which includes interviews with policy makers and expert, in addition to archival research of primary and secondary sources and direct observation as the most appropriate techniques for empirical research. As signaled in the introduction, the institutionalization of regional cooperation and collective action is considered to be a necessary step and precondition for the achievement of an East Asian Community, which is actually understood as one of those ‘ideal types’ proposed by Max Weber. This means that this study acknowledges that a ‘supranational regional type of community’ in East Asia may be difficult to observe in. 政治大 essential characteristics existing in people’s subjectivities. (Babbie, 2009: 357) Weber 立 developed this conceptual tool of ideal types which have become a key element driving. the empirical reality, but it works more as a conceptual model, which is composed by. ‧ 國. 學. research in Social Sciences. Indeed, Weber argued that no scientific system is ever capable of reproducing all concrete reality, nor can any conceptual framework ever do. ‧. full justice to the infinite diversity of a particular phenomena. (Coser, 1977: 223-224) Since all science involves selection as well as abstraction, the social scientist can easily. Nat. sit. y. be caught in a dilemma when he chooses his conceptual framework. Thus, an ideal type is a useful tool and analytical construct that serves the investigator as a measuring. io. er. mechanism to ascertain similarities as well as deviations in concrete cases.. al. n. iv n C U literal sense, but it is more related h to the of typical courses of e nnotion g cofhani accentuation It is worth noting that an ideal type is not meant to refer to moral ideals in a. conduct. (Coser, 1977: 223-224) This is why ideal types are good as models, also. bearing in mind that models are supposed to simplify reality. Models are a feature sometimes complex, but they actually deliberately omit some things in order to focus on others, leaving out factors that cannot be modeled. Finally ideal types enable one to construct hypotheses linking them with the conditions that brought the phenomenon or event into prominence. This is why, as it will be exposed in the following sections, the conceptualization of variables chosen for this study also follows this logic of 'ideal types' as analytical constructs to reduce reality into a more understandable and manageable manner, considering that the ideal type offers that conceptual device to measure and to clarify those aspects of empirical reality we want to study. Moreover, a many of Weber's ideal types refer to collectivities rather than to the social actions of. 9.

(20) individuals, it fits well the purposes of this research. As point of departure, then, this study builds on the following assumptions: •. When great regional powers are not strongly committed to advance cooperation between them in order to promote regional institutionalization, the legitimate leadership of a third party – preferably a middle power – is necessary to fill in this gap and to bridge between the competing leadership of the regional rivals in order to advance regionalist projects.. •. The institutionalization of regional cooperation and collective action among the Northeast Asian great powers – namely China and Japan – remains a necessary precondition to advance the formation of an East Asian Community. However, this. 政治大 between them with the 立states of Southeast Asia.. has not happened. Korea as a middle power appears as the most suitable candidate to fill in the gaps, bridging among the regional powers in Northeast Asia and. ‧ 國. 學. This applies, of course, when such regional community has been stated as long term goal by the countries in the region in several occasions. These assumptions helped define the. ‧. research questions presented in the next section. They also imply that a successful regionalist project cannot be realized in the absence of strong political will and. Nat. sit. y. leadership, which in the case of East Asia requires the commitment to the processes of. io. er. regional institutionalization, particularly that of the two great regional powers and biggest economies. Due to their historical differences, rivalry and competition, South. al. n. iv n C U and take up a proactive hinfluence capacity or at least the potential to e n g cthese h iprocesses. Korea – identified as the regional middle power located in NEA – appears to have the. role to promote cooperation and institutionalization with its neighbours; helping thus to reduce the institutional gap between North and Southeast Asia. The first difficulty that also arises from these assumptions is why would China or Japan want South Korea to assume leadership responsibilities in terms of regional institutionalization? Economic pragmatism can perhaps help understand the importance of ending the regional stalemate that often marks the interactions between the Northeast Asian countries. China, Japan and Korea’s economic interdependence due to the increasing intraregional trade; 3 plus a series of transnational common problems that 3. China has become the biggest trade partner for both Japan and South Korea. In the particular case of the ROK, already in 2010 China accounted for 26% of its exports and 16.8% of its imports; while Japan came second with 15% of its imports, and third after the U.S. when it comes to exports destination.. 10.

(21) Jose Guerra Vio. require collective action and coordinated response from regional governments make the construction of a normative framework for this region an objective necessity. However, economic pragmatism does not always prevail, and in face of the differences and mistrust that continue to exist among all the parties, Seoul appears as the counterpart which both Tokyo and Beijing feel more comfortable dealing with – or less uncomfortable perhaps. Perceptions matter a great deal. From a Chinese point of view, they too share with Koreans a conflictive relationship with the Japanese occupation in the past. On a citizen level the perception of Japan and the way it has dealt with the history remains mostly negative in both China and South Korea. 4 From a Japanese perspective, the Republic of Korea (ROK) is considered to be part of the same aligned side in East Asia: both countries are close US allies and have benefitted from the. 政治大 embracing a free market approach. Moreover, both countries have democratic systems 立 more or less consolidated and they are suspicious of a rising and non-democratic China. security umbrella provided by the Americans to industrialize their economies by. ‧ 國. 學. led by the Communist Party. Finally both Japan and South Korea have opted for a more open and pro-Western approach to regionalism - although more so Tokyo and Seoul, as. ‧. we shall see.. In this context, within the last decade the ROK has – discretely at first and more. Nat. sit. y. proactively later on – taken a new role in regional and even global affairs. Foreign policy makers in Seoul have been very keen in recent years on trying to position Korea. io. er. as the hub for Northeast Asian regional integration and a responsible country in the. al. n. iv n C U decades ago in East Asia: as today South Korea has taken up thehplace e nJapan h ia few g chad world. Even though it was badly hit by the 1997-98 crisis, thanks to an in depth reform. the most innovative, internationally active and technologically advanced country within the region. The Korean model of development, its forward-looking "Green-Growth" strategy, its hosting and active membership in regional and global institutions; and its contribution to regional governance are altogether helping to set up a solid image for this country which once was one of the poorest in the world. This activism, as this (Official data obtained at http://keri.koreaexim.go.kr/) 4 Perceptions matter, as Berger argues in the relationship with its neighbors, Japan’s soft power constitutes that of a hard case, and its image suffers from severe liabilities. Berger exposes a study in which 71 percent of Chinese have a negative view of Japan. Also, Kim shows how over 72 percent of the people in South Korea perceived Japan with distrust. See Thomas Berger, “Japan in Asia: A Hard Case for Soft Power,” Orbis, vol. 54, issue 4 (Fall 2010): 565-582; and Byung-kook Kim, “Between China, America, and North Korea: South Korea’s Hedging,” in China’s Ascent: Power, Security, and the Future of International Politics, ed. Robert S. Ross and Zhu Feng (New York: Cornell University, 2008): 191217.. 11.

(22) dissertation will try to argue, is also helping to lay down the foundations for the construction of a regional institutional framework in East Asia. For instance, the new permanent Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat (TCS) in Seoul, as one of the several initiatives put forward by Korea within the CKJ group, points exactly in that direction; thus it will be considered – among other initiatives – as one valuable empirical aspect for this research project.. Figure 1: Research Main Proposal. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 1.2.1. Research Questions and Variables. Before introducing the main research questions and selected variables in order to guide the discussion in the following chapters, Figure 1 depicts what has been described. 12.

(23) Jose Guerra Vio. above as point of departure and main theoretical proposal of this research project. The ascending arrows show the processes this project pays attention to, while the big feedback arrows are included to show both how they reinforce and help to consolidate institutionalization in the region - particularly in NEA - as well as the roles of the different actors involved. Accordingly, this study tries to respond two sets of research questions. The first one attempts to build new theory by a process of inference, while the second set of questions looks into the particular empirical case of South Korea and its influence on regional institutionalization as a middle power. •. In the absence of consensus among great regional powers, can the process of. 政治大. regional institutionalization be driven by a middle power? Does East Asian regionalism illustrate this situation through the behaviour displayed by South. 立. Korea?. Has the ROK manifested a leadership role in its approach to the processes of. 學. ‧ 國. •. regional institutionalization in East Asia? How has this role affected or influenced regionalism in this part of the world?. ‧. Seoul’s efforts to coordinate, manage and/or promote initiatives that in turn help to. sit. y. Nat. advance regionalism in East Asia are expected to serve as the evidence to give answer to these questions. It is plausible that different information will point in almost opposite. io. er. directions. Indeed, it is highly probable that some answers will show affirmative. al. n. iv n In this sense, there are 2 scenarios this study U pays special attention to. i e h n c g Information indicating South Korea’s activism in cases where regional cooperation has information, some others negative information, and some other unknown information.. Ch possible. been achieved in order to advance the institutionalization of the region as a whole will be considered to support an affirmative responses to these research questions. Of course, to observe the opposite will entail a negative response to the research questions. A). ROK Leadership Role + Regional Institutionalization = Affirmative Answer. B). ROK Leadership Role . -. Regional Institutionalization. Answer. 13. =. Negative.

(24) These two scenarios - A and B - offer a good standard of evidence as the relationship to study is clearly distinguishable. However, many other possible situations with much more nuanced inputs and outputs are also expected, providing perhaps less direct evidence, nevertheless those situations are considered in the hope they can also help to bring supporting evidence. For instance, information indicating both a lack activism or marginal role displayed by Korea and a lack of advancement in regional cooperation and institutionalization can help to support and bring additional evidence for an affirmative response to the research questions; although in such situations the outcomes may also be attributable to other intervening variables, in which cases it will be acknowledged. A situation in which there is no variation is possible as well, and this will be considered as equal to the idea of little or negative advancement of regional. 政治大 important as standards of evidence, since they also help to elaborate this research 立 hypotheses, which formulation is made clear in chapter III, point 3.2.2; this is done cooperation and institutionalization. These two scenarios established above are. ‧ 國. 學. following the same logic of possible scenarios stated above that will allow confirming or rejecting the two hypotheses for this research.. ‧. Also worth noting - as it is implied in the possibility of Korea not always displaying any kind of active role - that Seoul's middle power behavior will not be. Nat. sit. y. taken for granted, but on the contrary, it is considered to vary according to different contexts and situations and it basically responds to one among several foreign policy. io. er. options that Korea considers based on its regional strategy. Eventually, a mixed. n. al. i n C will be ultimately of a mixed and nuanced h e nnature. gchi U. v. outcome is expected, as in any qualitative type of methodology, and thus the responses. The main theoretical relationship to be addressed by this research is the one. between the explanatory variable of ‘middlepowermanship’ – term borrowed from Cooper, Higgott and Nossal (1993) to be conceptualized in chapter II and operationalized in chapter III – and the dependent variable determined as 'regional institutionalization' in terms of promoting cooperation and collective action in order to create a normative framework in the region. As it will be explained, the emphasis will be on the building of regional institutions and the creation of regional governance, as the most observable aspects of regionalism. •. Explanatory Variable: Middlepowermanship Empirically observed through the foreign policy behavior of South Korea as one of the regional middle powers in East Asia.. 14.

(25) Jose Guerra Vio. •. Dependent Variable: Regional Institutionalization Empirically observed through institution-building efforts and creation of regional governance in East Asia.. Understood as 'ideal types' as well, the conceptualization and operationalization of both variables follows King, Keohane and Verba’s (1994) approach to qualitative research. They suggest using specific indicators when an abstract concept cannot be measured directly. These indicators shall be more observable and for which data are available. These authors have set up the most important foundations for qualitative research following a scientific approach for the field of IR and IPE. Indeed, they propose using a similar approach to scientific inquiry as in quantitative research. Hence, they insist in. 治政 prefer the term 'explanatory' since in qualitative research大 everything is related, and thus 立variables. This is how they put forward their methodology there is no real independent. the use of terminology such as 'variables,' although instead of independent variable they. ‧ 國. 學. for qualitative types of research that allows the operationalization of these often 'intangible variables' into more observables indicators. Indeed, King, Keohane and Verba's approach for qualitative research is the most valid and commonly used for this. ‧. type of research. Accordingly, the analytical conceptualization of the two main. y. Nat. variables is carried out in chapter II, where several aspects that are related to these main. sit. concepts are also taken into consideration to better understand their relationship and the. al. er. io. processes embedded in them. Their discussion allows later – in chapter III – their. v. n. operationalization as variables, the building of the theory and the formulation of hypotheses for this research.. Ch. engchi. i n U. 1.3. Research Contributions This study hopes to make both practical and theoretical contributions. Considering the main purpose of this project is to determine to what extent South Korea’s foreign policy behavior towards the region has shown a leadership role as a middle power; and how this has affected the processes oriented towards the institutionalization of regional cooperation in order de build a normative framework and ultimately an East Asian Community; the outcomes of this dissertation suggest improved practical understanding of regionalism in this part of the world, and more specifically the strategies for a country like Korea in these processes. In addition, the literature on middle powers does. 15.

(26) not often consider direct and specific applications to regionalism, a process which is usually advanced and led by great regional powers and where middle size countries normally have a less relevant role. Thus, as most of scientific research, through a process of inference from a particular case - the experience of South Korea in East Asian regionalism - this project is expected to contribute to the building of new theory by assessing the real impact a middle power can have when displaying a role of leadership in the processes associated to regionalism in a context in which the great regional powers are often unable to cooperate in order to move regional institutionbuilding forwards. Indeed, this research expects to show how and why a middle power like South Korea should be considered as a key player in the processes of regional. 政治大 commitment with regional institution and community-building, while determining its 立 actual contributions can serve as learning process for other countries in this region and institutionalization in East Asia. The practical significance to study this case of active. ‧ 國. 學. middle powers in other parts of the world. In particular for East Asian countries, to learn from this experience could help them better manage the several regional trends. ‧. occurring and the challenges for the future – like the so called ‘Rise of China’ or the North Korea issue – not just in economic terms but especially in political ones. In turn,. Nat. sit. y. this work hopes to shed some light on the pursuing of an ideal that prevails in policymakers and regional elites: that of an East Asian Community as ultimate goal where. io. er. norms, values, a sense of common destiny and possibly a common identity are all. al. n. iv n C not just an analysis of South Korea’s h eroleningEast i Uregionalism in the last decade c hAsian elements agreed upon amongst its members. Ultimately, this research hopes to become. although this is its main focus - but also a policy recommendation for the future. challenges the region as a whole faces in regards to the institutionalization of regional cooperation. On the theoretical side, there are some specific variables in the processes of East Asian regionalism that are unique and which have not been studied elsewhere. The issue of leadership, as described in the previous sections, is one such variable that has been identified for this project as a key element affecting regional institutionalization and the role a middle power like South Korea has within it. As it is detailed in section 2.3. and 2.4., where the main relationship between regionalism and middle powers is revised from the literature available, this research is certainly not the first one trying to link these two concepts. To be sure, regionalism is often considered as a terrain in. 16.

(27) Jose Guerra Vio. which middle powers can manoeuvre and display its typical behaviour. However, this study uses a novel and distinctive approach when it argues that in the particular and unique case of East Asian regional institution and community building - especially in the context of Northeast Asia as a subregion - the capacity of a middle power to take the lead can become the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle in order to advance the regionalist projects, due to the contentious relations among regional powers. This is different from the traditional sources of regional leadership and commitment that the process of regionalism has shown elsewhere, where the great regional powers normally serve as the axis for the advancement of regional institutionalization (e.g. France and Germany in Europe, Argentina - Brazil in South America or the U.S. in North America). Hence, from the particular and unique vantage. 政治大 plausible leadership role of a middle power in a case where regionalism has not been 立 driven by the most powerful countries in the region. As pointed out, East Asia indeed point that the geopolitical situation in NEA provides, this study attempts to study the. ‧ 國. 學. offers the exceptional regional scenario for doing so. In this process, a theoretical and conceptual framework is built, which can serve as one of those models mentioned. ‧. earlier that work as analytical constructs to reduce the aspects of empirical reality we want to study into more understandable and manageable ways.. Nat. sit. y. To understand all these specific aspects in the long term contributes to the improvement of theoretical understanding of middle powers and regionalism in general,. io. n. al. er. and the theoretical implications they may have for the study of IR and IPE as. iv n C U in literature h e nof gmiddle c h ipowers. disciplines. Consequently, this research intends to advance the study of IR and IPE by specifically adding to the. its relationship with. regionalism by understanding the role Korea has played in East Asian regionalism. As said, the literature on middle powers abundant within IR studies focuses mainly in issues related to human rights, development cooperation and peace keeping operations, and does not often consider middle power activism in regionalism, which is a field that is mainly studied by IPE scholars as it is frequently related to economic integration. By looking at this plausible and particular relationship this research expects to broaden the study of middle powers and regionalism, and in doing so helping to elaborate new theory within these two disciplines by assessing the many possible ways a middle power can assume leadership in regional processes. Additionally this project also advances East Asian and Asia-Pacific as interdisciplinary area studies, by specifically adding the new perspective of South. 17.

(28) Korea’s plausible leadership role as a middle power in order to facilitate and manage regional institutionalization in this part of the world. For the area study of East Asia in particular, this research helps to underscore the ways regionalism is occurring. Theories trying to explain the different regional processes in the world are often based on Western ideals, in response to the European experience of integration as the paradigmatic example of regional institution-building, where the two regional powers of Germany and France co-led the process of regional integration. Thus, most of these Western-based theories find it difficult to explain East Asian regional trends, while research in this region often focuses entirely on economic integration and Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), leaning towards a more economic level of analysis, forgetting the institutional side. This research hopes to go one step further in the study of regionalism. 政治大 deep market-driven regional integration. 立 Indeed, many implications of regionalism that have commonly been studied in. in East Asia, now that its countries have for over a decade begun to institutionalize their. ‧ 國. 學. other regions, like institution-building, governance creation, identity and sovereignty issues are still unexplored in East Asia. To understand these aspects in the long term. ‧. contributes to the improvement of the relations between the countries in East Asia, given by an institutional architecture and normative framework they lack today, in. Nat. sit. y. order to promote cooperation, maintaining security and peace and thus promoting development. Academic research can certainly have a positive effect on policy-makers. io. er. and the ruling elites that make the decisions. This research hopes to do just that.. al. n. iv n C scenarios for regionalism in East Asia; h eitnisgthecparticular h i U treatment of the theories this While the outcome of this study will certainly help to elaborate on the possible. research project possesses what adds the most value to this dissertation. The issue of how this research builds new theory is further developed in following chapters where it will become clearer, particularly in the last section of chapter II and throughout chapter III.. To sum up, the special focus on the relationship among the alleged leadership of a middle power and the regional institutionalization processes as the two main variables of this study serves as novel contribution to the theories that usually dealt with these issues but that have been mainly based on Western experiences, where the countries leading the processes of regionalism are usually the preeminent great regional powers and not small or middle size countries. When this is compared to previous analyses or applied to different settings further creation of new theories is possible, setting a. 18.

(29) Jose Guerra Vio. precedent that may differ with the traditional explanations based on regional leadership exerted by great powers. It is clear the processes of regional institutionalization are not happening in the same way in East Asia as it is in Europe or The Americas, but how? and how does this influence the prospects of regionalism both as a field of study and in the objective reality? The relevance of testing the hypotheses put forward by this study arises when trying to give answers to this type of questions that can suggest future prospects for research in less developed parts of the world where regionalism is at an even earlier stage, like Central Asia, the Middle East or Africa. This is how this research expects to push the boundary of existing knowledge about both, regionalism and middle powers.. 政治大. 1.4. Theoretical Standpoint of this Study. 立. Having the main research questions, variables and research contributions as referent,. ‧ 國. 學. the following sections of this chapter I aim to provide the vantage point from which this research project looks into the phenomena it deals with. In so doing several different. ‧. approaches that are considered helpful, mainly from IPE and IR theories have been integrated, to allow a comprehensive understanding of regionalism and the issue of. Nat. sit. y. cooperation and collective action among states. Later on, in chapter II the specific discussion of the main concepts identified as variables is carried out for analytical. io. n. al. er. purposes, while the following sections below provide the general theoretical context and the standpoint of this dissertation.. Ch. 1.4.1. The Neoliberal Perspective. engchi. i n U. v. The study of International Political Economy and its several theories helps us to draw attention to the increasingly transnational nature of economic activity and the disjuncture between national boundaries as the limits of political space, characterizing the current global system and its regions. Robert Gilpin in his 2001 book “Global Political Economy: Understanding the International Economic Order” reviews the different approaches that scholars use to understand regionalism, among other processes related to globalization. Since the emphasis here is on regional institutionalization, the main approaches taken into account from IPE all lean towards the so called “neo-liberal” strand which is more likely to emphasize cooperation, as. 19.

(30) opposed to realism and Neorealism which focus more on conflict. As the main approach that somehow counters the neoliberal option of this study, the neorealist perspective sees interests in security issues as almost the only ones prevalent and thus its insistence in conflictual rather than cooperative behavior among states, as Yoshimatsu explains: “Even when the neorealists consider interstate cooperation, they posit that such cooperation is generally difficult because cooperation under anarchy is similar to a prisoner’s dilemma in which the dominant strategy will be to defect, making states worry about cheating. However, this approach is weak in grasping the evolving nature of interstate cooperation, which has gradually changed largely as a response to intensive trends towards economic globalization. Furthermore, the neorealist perspective has limitations in taking into account the meaningful influence of specific characteristics embedded in the political economy of a region and the states in the region.” (Yoshimatsu, 2010: 229). 政治大 Initially, Neofunctionalism appears to be one of the most influential neoliberal 立 prospective to explain regionalism, associated to the thoughts of Ernst Haas. This. ‧ 國. 學. approach is the most important effort by political scientists to explain regional integration and cooperation in general and the European case in particular. It argues. ‧. that economic, technological and other developments during the 20th century have driven peoples and nation-states toward peaceful economic and political integration at. Nat. sit. y. both, regional and global levels. The problem of war can be solved and the war-prone system of nation-states can be escaped through international agreements in specific and. io. er. functional areas, with an important “spillover” effect from one area of integration to. al. n. iv n C political cooperation and a transnational h e npolitical i U (Gilpin, 2001) Economic g c hcommunity.. others, which a key element in this approach to cooperation. This process would lead to. interdependence is understood under these terms. In their co-written work on Power and Interdependence, Keohane and Nye 5 expose what they denominate ‘complex interdependence’ as an ideal type that – in contrast to Neorealism – better represents the new world order, and thus it is more capable to grasp reality in a closer and more accurate way than Realpolitik. These authors indentify their interdependence as having three main characteristics: 1) multiple channels to connect societies, consisting of informal ties between governmental and nongovernmental elites, formal ties between foreign offices and transnational organization in the form of interstate, trans5. Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye expose their theses about these issues in Power and Interdependence: World Politics in Transition (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1977, 1989, 2001), chapter 2; and in “Power and Interdependence Revisited,” (International Organization, 1987. 41(4): 725-753).. 20.

(31) Jose Guerra Vio. governmental and transnational relations; 2) absence of a hierarchical setting of agenda within the interstate relationships, which means other issues than military/security may arise to the top of the agenda, and when the distinction between domestic and foreign policy becomes blurred; and 3) no use of military force within the same region, which highlights the importance of regionalism as a trend in a world where a complex interdependence prevails. (Keohane and Nye, 1987) These three main conditions are much more approximated to a better interpretation of some global issues today, like those of economic or environmental nature, and even help to characterize the entire relationship between some countries in this new world order. Since this research deals with regional institution-building, another key approach taken into account is the so called Neoliberal Institutionalism or. 政治大 emphasizing the role of institutions in solving economic and other more political 立 problems. International organizations matter as important actors and regional Neoinstitutionalism, with – again – Robert Keohane as the most prominent scholar;. ‧ 國. 學. institutions are relevant since they can increase incentives for states to solve their disputes and cooperate. (Gilpin, 2001) Neoinstitutionalists often cite cooperation in. ‧. trade, human rights and collective security, among other issues, as the basis upon which institutions are built in the current international order. These instances of cooperation. Nat. sit. y. have been labeled as “regimes”, and the most commonly cited definition of regimes comes from Stephen Krasner, who, although mostly recognized as a Neorealist, defines. io. er. regimes as those institutions that possess a set of explicit and implicit norms, rules and. al. n. iv n C expectations in a given area. (Krasner, h e n1983) h i U like Keohane point out g cInstitutionalists. decision-making procedures which can facilitate the convergence of actors’. that the increasing visibility and specificity of international institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, World Trade Organization (WTO),. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Community (now the European Union or EU); became the evidence for their theory. (Keohane, 1993) Institutions rose in a context of interdependence to help states to overcome collective action problems. Hegemony, Keohane explains, “was not essential to the maintenance of regimes based on mutual interest, although American hegemony had been an important factor in establishing many of them in the first place.” (1993:284) Indeed, this author argues that institutionalists do not elevate regimes to “positions of authority over states: on the contrary, such regimes are established by states to achieve their purposes.” (Keohane, 1993: 271) This is why the Neoinstitutionalist paradigm has. 21.

(32) become one of the most prevalent to study institutions as intervening variables where people’s values and culture are embedded, especially because it includes the invisible connotation of implicit norms. The setting of an efficient process of decision-making and procedures through the building of institutions allows reducing uncertainty in certain areas, as well as lowering the transaction costs of information through the channels established for communication and interaction. Thus practices become institutionalized. Indeed, as Peters emphasizes, this new version of classic institutionalism goes beyond the description of institutions and it “seeks to explain them as a ‘dependent variable’ and, more importantly, to explain other phenomena with institutions as the ‘independent variables’ shaping policy and administrative behavior.” (Peters, 1998: 206). 政治大 possesses a much more “realist” point of view as it remains aware of the vested 立 interests behind institutions. For instance, Neoinstitutionalism recognized the accurate. Subsequently this neoliberal perspective, although optimistic in nature, it also. ‧ 國. 學. realist emphasis that the strongest international regimes of the 20th century were actually constructed in the shadow of U.S. hegemony, and thus they followed its. ‧. hegemonic logics. However, when it comes to the issue of institutions it is the Neoinstutionalist approach – and not the realist – the one that can offer a more. Nat. sit. y. comprehensive understanding the international system that appeared after the collapse of the Soviet Union: the consolidation of regionalism as a global trend with the. io. er. European Union’s and other regional frameworks, the increased globalization of the. al. n. iv n C Today neoliberal institutionalist predictions h e n g appear c h i toUbe more accurate. They saw economy and the rise of large emergent developing countries in Asia and elsewhere.. economic and ecological interdependence as secular trends, according to Keohane, and therefore expected a continuing increase in the number and complexity of international institutions, and in the scope of their regulation. In sum, “International institutions exist largely because they facilitate self-interested cooperation by reducing uncertainty, thus stabilizing expectations. It follows that the expectations of states will depend in part on the nature and strength of international institutions.” (Keohane, 1993: 288) When we see at the way the world is organized today, is not difficult to concur with these propositions. Almost twenty years ago Keohane took a stand when he predicted that the European Community (today the EU) will be larger and have greater impact on its members’ policies in the year 2000 than it was when the Berlin Wall came down. In the year 2012 this prediction can be not just confirmed to be true, but it also stimulates the. 22.

(33) Jose Guerra Vio. creation of new theory based on the current events. Finally, a third and most recent point of view from is the so called Intergovernmentalist posture. According to Gilpin, this approach derives from both Neofunctionalism and Neoinstitutionalism. It shares with the former the emphasis on economic interests as the principal driving force of regional integration, while coincides with the latter on stressing the importance of regional institutions as the means to achieve and secure integration. However, it differs from these approaches as it gives a central role to national governments and nation-states as main actors; aspect that makes it coincide with Neorealism only to that extent, while it remains a more liberal strand as it focuses more in cooperation and collective action. (Gilpin, 2001) Intergovernmentalism will be further characterized in following sections, as it fits well the. 政治大 which focuses on governmental policies that have helped foster regional cooperation 立 and the processes of regional institutionalization.. East Asian case and thus becomes a central theoretical consideration for this study. ‧ 國. 學. The main neoliberal perspectives described above help to connect or bridge between the world of politics and economics to understand cooperation and institution-. ‧. building; and to apply it to the East Asian regional setting in particular. This bridging becomes necessary due to the characteristics of this study, which takes into account the. Nat. sit. y. Neofunctionalist idea of spillover effect, seeing economic and functional integration as the first steps to promote cooperation in other areas, advancing further towards the. io. er. creation of a regional community where regional institutions and governance become. al. n. iv n C however, derives from the way thehEuropean e n g cintegrative h i U process has been carried out increasingly influential in regional affairs, as Neoinstituionalism proposes. This ideas,. and studied so far, where supranational entities have taken up tasks formerly performed but national governments and where a strong regional identity has been built. It remains to be seen how this can be transplanted to other parts of the world like East Asia. (Peng, 2004: 427) Thus the Inter-governmentalist approach is integrated as it rests in between the other two and it pays also more attention to national governments and their leadership role in promoting cooperation and creating regional governance. This also may be more helpful for studying those many aspects of the integration processes in East Asia that do not fall into any conventional means of regional arrangements like the ones carried out in other parts of the world, where more institutionalized mechanisms were applied first to guide and regulate a process of regional economic integration that came gradually, as many experts convey. (Kasahara, 2004) In East Asia things have. 23.