East Asian Regionalism

The resurgence of regionalism in the world has generated widespread interest in the study of"new regionalism"in international studies, which appears to be a new wave. In China academic circle of international relations, especially in the study circle of East-Asian political economy, much of research has turned to new regionalism–related issue-areas, centering on how to understand and explain the implications, characters, impact and function of East-Asian regionalism. These are practical and academic background of this study.The purpose of this study is to comprehensively examine and analyze the characters, impact and functions of East-Asian new regionalism. Its focus will be on the inspiration of European Union to the cooperation among the countries in East–Asian area.The article consists of five parts.The Introduction part explains the subject and its value-in theory and in practice, explains the current academic achievements on the subject, points out the main contribution to the existing research, and makes clear the whole writing arrangement. The second part mainly discusses the definition and two theories of regionalism, new regionalism and new functionalism(Chapter One).The third part reviews the history of new regionalism in East-Asia after the Cold War, especially the background, motive and some problems it is now facing . This part also provides the concept of the ASEAN+3, aiming at getting a better picture of the East–Asian area(Chapter Two).The fourth part provides with a brief history and overview of the reform process andthe inspiration of European Union and the new functionalism it has applied(Chapter Three).The fifth part is on the dynamics and the future development of regionalism in East-Asia. This part is the core part of the dissertation. This part examines in detail the inspiration of European Union to the cooperation among the countries in East–Asian area and the long foreground of new regionalism in the area. And here also includes the corresponding policy of Chinese government because of the necessity of the China factor(Chapter Four).The Conclusion part reiterates the major arguments and sums up the whole study.