ABSTRACT
The main aim of this chapter is to investigate how and why regional organizational structures and integrating mechanisms differ between various regions of the world. There exist numerous studies of European integration, and a substantial literature on regional integration in other parts of the world, including Pacific Asia, is now emerging. There are, however, few studies comparing in a scientific way the European and the Asian models of regional integration (exceptions are Holland, 1994; Higgott, 1995; Milner, 1995), although this theme is touched upon more generally in the analyses of regional integration (e.g. Katzenstein, 1996).
