ABSTRACT
More often than not, people who come together to discuss regionalism tend to utilize approaches that either over-emphasize or overguote the original definition of regional integration, as based on West European experience. Especially when we witness such prosperous economic development and emerging economic co-operation between East Asian countries, it is even more likely to lead us to believe that the ideal of a progressive regional integration is in the making. Many do come forward to ask if there will indeed be a similar effect upon regional integration appearing in East Asia, principally as a result of increasing economic interdependence. But it has always been questionable that East Asians would follow the pace and format of institutionalized integration as has occurred in Europe. In the past few years, academic communities in the region and elsewhere have been digging into the core in an attempt to uncover the answers to what the major characteristics of regionalism in East Asia are. 1 So far, in terms of building a conceptual analysis of regional co-operation in East Asia, it seems that there has not been much success.
