Regionalism in the Asia Pacific: Is geography destiny?

The renaissance in geographical 'bloc' development in the 1990s has generated expectations that prevailing international regionalism is compatible with the dominant global integration model. Nascent regionalism in the Asia Pacific best captures this trend with regional initiatives being established on the basis of 'open' regionalism as opposed to 'closed' regionalism that is associated potentially with institution building and regional governance. In this paper, I examine the shape and nature of Asia Pacific regionalism. I show how countries here favour a process of regime building that is centred on network building among state and private actors without any goal towards institution building. Asia Pacific regionalism is less concerned with the production and governance of regional space than the assertion of a collective Asian political culture that preserves state sovereignty.