Abstract:   The failure of the East Asia Economic Group (EAEG) was more than a foreign policy failure for Malaysia. It shed light on the political realities in the region. The proposed EAEG excluded all the region's Western partners. Viewed as a bloc against the West and under strong pressure from Washington, all countries in the region, including Japan (supposed-to-be leader), unanimously disapproved of the idea. This paper seeks to understand the contemporary development of the regional integration process in East Asia. The following two main questions are posited- 1) can linkages be established between the idea of EAEG and the later developments of the East Asian regionalization process - ASEAN + 3? 2) Can the approach of exclusive regionalization work in today's East Asia? The analysis shows that the tendency toward exclusive regionalization is rather strong. The research, however, questions the plausibility of such an exclusive regionalization given the region's ever strong interdependence with extra-regional partners across political, economic, and security domains.

Keywords:   East Asia, EAEG, ASEAN, Regional Integration

Publisher:   ILMA UNIVERSITY

Published:   30 May 2009

Issue:   Issue 1 : Volume 5

E-ISSN:   2409-6520

P-ISSN:   2414-8393