East Asian Regionalism within the Context of Regional Security Competition：A Comparative Analysis with European and Northern American Regionalism

　　Abstract: The development of regionalism is impacted by a region’s internal and external security environment. European Regionalism was rooted in and positively expanded as a result of both Europe’s internal and external security environments. As a result, rather than fading in the wake of the Cold War, European regionalism actually grew stronger. In comparison, the internal and external security environments in Northern America both served as a damper on the establishment and progress of its regionalism. As a result, regionalism within Northern America today is basically limited to regional economic configurations. Similar to the Northern America case, the internal and external security environment in East Asia has negatively impacted the development of regionalism. Unlike North America though, because of security competition within the East Asia region, awareness of a collective East Asian community, while increasing remains relatively weak. As a result, efforts to deepen East Asian regionalism are generally dampened by the region’s internal security challenges. At the same time, the development of East Asian regionalism also faces external challenges security competition between the major powers in the region and global powers.

　　Author: Wang Chuanxing is an Associate Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations at Tongji University