ABSTRACT
This conclusion chapter presents some closing thoughts of the concepts covered in preceding chapters of this book. The book considered complex interdependence as an element of inter-regional relations, and outlined the importance of economics as the primary driver of convergence. It outlined the importance of regions in the international system and the role that regions can and do play in the shaping of the international order. The rapid economic rise of East/Southeast Asia, and indeed of the BRICS, has put concerns about the process of systemic shift and its consequences for international power and global governance at the centre of debate. While the Middle East's many crises are well-known and they habitually spill over to affect the global canvas, and so far East Asian countries have managed to leave the regions to the USA and its Western allies to manage, far less attention has been paid to the ways in which East Asia's security dilemmas could destabilize pan-Asian relations.
