From geo-economics of the “Asia-Pacific” to geo-politics of the “Indo-Pacific”

Abstract

Crafted over the last 60+ years, the member states of the EU, or most of them, have always had a very Cartesian, legal formalistic view of regionalism. They have taken, not unreasonably, a certain degree of pride in their regionally integrative bona fides.This pride was underwritten by a Balassian logic of progressive economic integration, especially in the last two decades of the 20th, and the now clichéd assumptions about the relevance of Europe’s “normative power. These positions were accompanied by an unstated assumption that processes of regional development in other parts of the world would, even if slowly, progress along a similar path to that espoused in Europe. The assumption was that the European model was exportable.