Patterns of leadership in the Asia-Pacific: a symposium

Abstract

Leadership at the regional level has come under the spotlight not only in the post-Cold War context, but also more recently following the global financial crisis. Yet, leadership by states within region-building and regional associations as leaders vis-à-vis other regions or powers remains relatively new territory for analysis and consideration, even though the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has attracted both admirers and sceptics. This introductory essay is intended to achieve two principal objectives regarding this symposium addressing Asia-Pacific regional leadership. First, we seek to put the ‘Asia-Pacific’ in historical context and identify some of the forces that have not only shaped but also hindered its realization. Recognizing China's historical role and contemporary rise is important to understand the parameters within which ASEAN and its member states seek to define particular visions of regional identity and enact collective enterprises. The other key background consideration when thinking about contemporary leadership in the Asia-Pacific is that the United States is seemingly in decline. The Asia-Pacific's two most consequential powers – the United States and China – are pervasive considerations for any regional organization that aims to lead and promote cooperation to solve collective action problems.

Keywords:

• ASEAN
• China
• United States
• regional leadership
• Asia-Pacific

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the GREEN Consortium, the European Commission's Framework Programme No. 7, ‘Global Re-Ordering: Evolution through European Networks’ project that provided support for the development of this paper, and the remaining three papers in this Symposium.

Notes

1 For an exploration of the different ways of conceptualizing regions, see Agnew (2013).

2 The most influential and representative volume was Kennedy (1989).

3 Established in 2004 as an industry-NGO initiative RSPO has developed fairly comprehensive socio-environmental regulation through its certification regime for palm oil. The palm oil industry is a major economic sector in Southeast Asia. Although Malaysia and Indonesia currently account for 85% of global palm oil production, other Southeast Asian states are moving into this sector as they see it as a vital source of growth, rural development and poverty alleviation, and food security. The palm oil sector is also a controversial industry, associated with forest destruction and land rights violations.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mark Beeson

Mark Beeson is Professor of International Politics at Murdoch University. His latest publications include Regionalism and Globalization in East Asia: Politics, Security and Economic Development, 2nd Edition, (Palgrave, 2014), China's Regional Relations: Evolving Foreign Policy Dynamics (with Fujian Li, Lynne Rienner, 2014) and The Routledge Handbook of Asian Regionalism (with Richard Stubbs, Routledge, 2012).

Diane Stone

Diane Stone is Professor of Governance at Murdoch University and Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. Her latest book is Knowledge Actors and Transnational Governance: The Public-Private Policy Nexus in the Global Agora (Palgrave MacMillan, 2013).