International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS)

220.

Panel Title             : REGIONALISM AND COMMUNITY BUILDING EURO-ASIAN PERSPECTIVE FROM BELOW AND FROM ABOVE

Institution             : European Alliance for Asian Studies

Chair                      : Sebastian Bersick

Convener              : Paul Van der Velde

Discussant           :

Panel Abstract    :

While ASEAN is celebrating its 40^th anniversary East Asian regionalism is no longer an idea but is rapidly developing with Southeast Asian and Northeast Asian stakeholders cooperating in a plethora of policy fields. Exemplifying this trend of regionalisation and community building in East Asia is the intention of ASEAN to establish an ASEAN Community that will consist of a security pillar, an economic pillar and a socio-cultural pillar. ASEAN's intention to endorse an ASEAN Charter and, possibly, to become a legal entity as well as the institutionalization of the East Asia Summit further underline this process. Developments in Asian regionalisation can not be understood in a purely international relations / international political economy perspective, for concomitant with the development of regional economic linkages and a degree of institutionalisation, senses of an Asian identity are being debated. Thus an interdisciplinary approach involving historians, sociologists, political scientists as well as international relations specialists is required to fully tease out the complexities of multiple trends. Within this framework a double panel will approach the topic of Regionalisation and Community Building, the panels are entitled "Regionalisation and Community Building from Below: Civil Society and Asian Communitarian Identity" "Regionalisation and Community Building from Above: Political Actors and Soft Power Dynamics".

Participants         :

Sebastian Bersick

Paper Title            : The EU and China: Regionalism, Community Building and Strategic

                                   Partnerships

Abstract                :

Over the course of the last ten years the relations between the European Union and the People's Republic of China have changed significantly. The relations have been progressively institutionalized and are e.g. no more merely defined by trade interests. An EU-China Strategic Partnership has been established and a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) is currently negotiated. Prior to these bilateral developments the EU, its Member States and East Asian countries had started to engage China also multilaterally within the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) process. By doing so the EU had facilitated regionalism and community building in East Asia. Against this context the paper will analyse the EU's policy vis-à-vis processes of increasing intraregional cooperation in East Asia and China's role within them. I will firstly discuss interests, institutions and interaction that characterize current EU-China relations using human rights, trade and security as examples of the increasingly conflicting bilateral agenda. In a second step the strategic dimension of the EU's approach towards China will be analysed by focusing on the Strategic Partnership and the ASEM process. This shall allow for, in a third step, analysing the impact of European and Chinese soft power on regionalism and community building in East Asia. It will be argued that the EU's two tier engagement strategy towards China has so far facilitated the convergence between European and Asian actors' interests and perceptions vis-à-vis regionalism and community building in East Asia.

David Camroux

Paper Title            : The Return to the Future of a Sino-Indic Asia?: Pan-Asianism and its

                                   Apologists Today

Ramses Amer

Paper Title            : The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) the Management of

                                  Inter-state Conflict

Abstract                :

The purpose of paper will be to assess the role played by ASEAN in the management and resolution of inter-state conflicts in Southeast Asian region. The ASEAN approach to conflict management will be outlined and the context in which it has developed presented. The achievements and challenges that ASEAN has faced and is still facing in the field of conflict management will be identified. Three main dimensions will be examined: first, the core elements of the approach, second, the role played by the Association in terms of conflict management, and, third, the possible impact of ASEAN approach and role on inter-state conflicts in Southeast Asia. The paper will also study the possible impact of new developments such as decision to establish an ASEAN Security Community and the process of drafting an ASEAN Charter, in assessing the role that ASEAN can play in promoting conflict management in the region.

Farish Ahmad (Badrul Hisham Ahmad Noor)

Paper Title            : Islamisation from below? The emergence of a pan-ASEAN religious-based civil

  society today

Christian Wagner

Paper Title            : India: Soft Power in the Making?

Abstract                :

India's impressive economic success after the liberalisation in 1991 has increased her international importance. Despite her domestic problems India is seen as one of the growth engines of the world economy besides China. Moreover, the US-Indo nuclear deal from March 2006 and the growing number of strategic partnership agreements signed between India and the major powers in recent years underline India's new position in the international system. Despite India's military capabilities it seems that the economic, science and technological resources will shape the country's foreign policy. These criteria underline India's soft power ambitions. They became evident in recent years, first, by the new importance towards the Indian diaspora thereby strengthening the trans-national linkages. Secondly, India is promoting regional and multilateral institution like the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) dialogue forum. Thirdly, India has always promoted conflict mediation and peace building efforts by the United Nations (UN) being one of the most important country for blue helmets. Finally, India's recent engagement for a peaceful solution of the civil war in Nepal showed her new efforts for conflict mediation in South Asia. India's soft power ambitions are not a new phenomenon. Nehru's foreign policy in the 1950s was inspired by similar ideals. But at that time, the cold war and India's international economic weakness have prevented India's soft power recognition. India's new soft power capabilities can become an important resource for strengthening regionalism in South Asia and for promoting community building in the wider Asian context.