Regionalism and Globalisation in East Asia - Essay Example

East Asia Studies There has been tremendous changes in situations in East Asia, the East Asia of today barely resembles that was only a decade ago. Recent proliferation of several mini9sterial conferences and numerous multilateral dialogues, along with various calls for the creation of the East Asian community has built great confidence between the states and has ensured great stability in the center of such prompt transformations. However, the primary impetus to ensuring regionalism and integration of East Asia calls for cooperation between the states in a broader range of areas which would in turn greatly simplify the realization of a more comprehensive, cooperative, and stable regional community. Although much of the regional transformation in the recent years has been so positive, principally in the economic sphere, various challenges abound, this challenges pose the risk to stability in this region. It is rather hard to count on which of the two; economic and security, could trigger stability in the region. The discourse of security and economic situations has been hugely dominated by the rise of China’s economy which has a huge role of the foreign affairs and has also transformed the geographic landscape of the region, which has sent the policy makers in the region searching for effective ways to cooperate, while still evading uncertainty concerning its future course. Another trend that is being overlooked in the region is Japan’s own steady transformation. The growth of China in the region accompanied by global political influence and rapidly growing defense expenditures has stirred up the public sentiment of Japan towards China. Additionally, situations at the Korean peninsula have been in recent years has become increasingly destabilizing security and the geographical flashpoint. Most importantly the continued growth of China’s economy and its current modernization has the great security concern in the region (Beeson 187). Another reason for tension in the region and its neighbors is the use of water due to the increased population pressure; the whole per capita water accessibility has declined by between forty and sixty per cent. This creates a security concern in the scramble for resource now that there is a great rise of China population and the great industrialization in Japan the great weather that is experienced in the region does not come to of help to the highly populated region. The currency crisis has also been a major concern of the East Asian region. This issue has been of concern for quite a long time spreading from Thailand and becoming more regional. This issue has brought about retrospect in the imbalances of the structure of the economy of Thailand which exposes it to short term debt; this has in turn affected the currency values of the countries that have had the same experience such as Koreas, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines (Beeson 206-210). Amongst these countries, some of them such as Indonesia did experience great currency movements; with their currency facing up to 80% loss of its value. It is significant to note that this financial crisis had an influence on the regional institutional development, and it affected the reputation and standing of the major powers in various ways with Japan suffering the greatest damage of its regional leadership ambitions (Beeson 203-206). With much concern to the environment, the capacity of China has faced some greater challenges which are associated with the continued processes of economic developments, which have also been extended beyond the borders. There is some indication of the impact of the population of China on the East Asian countries with the growing prices of commodities and resources such as Oil. The consumption of such commodities in China continues to rise which brings about the continued thinking of the significant development and significant future of the East Asian. Some sources argue that unless the externalities that are associated with the industrialization of China are managed successfully, the social and political stability of China itself and the bold experiment in its capitalist economics will be in great doubt. The countries rural residents have little of not at all access to clean water with its lakes greatly polluted and the illegal dumping in the rivers (Beeson 197-200). Given current realities and concerns on the East Asia region, it goes without one saying that a return to a Cold war-era would be possible with strategy of containment so as to pre-empt the rise of China. Such a strategy would possibly serve only to reserve majority of regions economic gains in the recent years. The regional powers must for that reason seek to pursue a policy of cautions that engage predicted traditional balance of power tactic, which will address, but will not fall victim to, uncertainty and skepticism that surrounds the rise of China. Such a policy will allow states to hedge against the unpredictable China future course without necessarily antagonizing it. This pursuit will likely to see consolidating strategic links among the democratic states and security alliances, which will create favorable partnerships. Such a traditional approach can create regional stability and more so a more sensible way forward with an expanded emphasis on broad multilateralism. It is important to note that US focuses on ad-hoc multilateralism initiative that only focuses on countries that only support the US policy, this is not necessarily apply to the region which is as large and very diverse like the East Asia. What is rather critical is the forum which is predicated on an inclusive policy of multilateralism and is actively engaging all states in that region, where all matters of apprehension are addressed directly, without any state being ostracized (Beeson 213). The economy of the East Asian poses a threat to the stability of the region; if not looked at a major influence that is created by the industrialization in Japan has a key impact in the regio9n; China’s dense population spreads its impacts way to it neighboring nations. Perhaps the nations of this region should show interest in exploiting or exploit their potential organizational leverage over the USA. This will not only provide economic stability, but it will also provide a degree of institutional or political autonomy to a region which is increasingly conscious of its liability to external political and economic forces. Work Cited Beeson, Mark. Regionalism and Globalisation in East Asia; Politics, Security and Development. London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007. Print. Read More