East Asia Standardize The Comparative Study

The paper focuses on shaping East Asian regional order by means of norm building. The paper defines the theoretical concept and functions of"regional norm". Then, it applies the concept into East Asian reigon, intending to find out contents, functions, and trends of existing East Asian regional norms. Norm in this paper denotes to the collective ideas with power support and gaining collective legitimacy. Regional norms, accordingly, function as the regional institution builder, the direct engine of regional integration process, the essence of regional integration, and the measure of regional integration level.The reason why the paper is interested in East Asian order building is that this order is still under dynamical transformation. The reason why norm is decided as the approach of regional order analysis is that norm building is a constantly resorted-to approach when East Asian countries tend to solve their regional problems. The paper selects two norm entrepreneurs in the region—the United States and the ASEAN and streamlines the process that they make regional norms planned, promoted, accepted and internalized. The two are a good contrast. The United States, on the one hand, has always been a norm strategy practicer worldwide. In East Asia, the United States established successfully the regional economic order based on the free trade norm and the regional political order based on the democratic alliance norm. Since the end of the Cold War, as the regional awareness of China and other East Asian countries are on the rise, the US foreign policy comes to identify with regional norms. On the other hand, although each and all of the ASEAN countries are not powerful in terms of overall national strength or specific economic, military and cultural power, the seemingly uncompetitive ASEAN turns to have earned supports from neighboring countries of China, Japan and South Korea to lead regional order building. The ASEAN Way has become a new norm in the region.In the new era, both norm sets are challenged. The US-led free trade norm has become the basis of the global economic order. Despite trade protectionism tendencies in the mainframe free trade supporters such as the US and the EU, the norm has sound foundation that cannot be easily shaken. The real problem lies in political and security aspects. The common security norm proposed by ASEAN lacks sufficient power support, due to the weak institutionalization of ASEAN itself and the weaker total strength of ASEAN countries. The US-led democracy alliance is based on the Cold War period ideological confrontation and cannot meet new security challenges in East Asia.Finally, the paper intends to make regional norm constructive to China's foreign policy making. As the emerging China has key interests in the region, it should be among the regional norm entrepreneurs. The major policy suggestion in the paper is that China adopts norm building as a means of regional order building, and support China-tagged norms such as the common security norm based on the philosophy of respecting differences while seeking the same goal, and the integrative security norm based on the new security concept.In summary, the paper deems regional norm building as a research perspective, exploring theoretically into all key stages of the norm life cycle, including norm generation, norm cascade, norm internalization and norm retrogradation, and historically into the norm formulation and promotion processes of the United States and the ASEAN. The paper ends at how China may leverage this norm approach to promote its national interest in the region. Structurally speaking, this paper adopts mainly the deductive research approach.