ABSTRACT
The objective of this volume as laid out in the introductory chapter is to deepen our understanding of Asia-Europe interregionalism within the changing system of international relations. By generally assuming that the institutional setting of specific forums like the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) or the EU-ASEAN dialogue influences the social, political and economic behavior of the actors involved, the authors have discussed and tested existing theories on the functions and benefits of interregionalism and interregional cooperation in general and its Asia-Europe variant in particular. Their overarching concern was to assess the impact of Asia-Europe interregionalism on the evolution of a system of global governance – often emphatically called a “New World Order” – and to highlight the factors and processes which allow us to explain this impact as precisely as possible. Hence, the different chapters discuss basic assumptions of interregionalism as a new sub-discipline within the field of international (economic) relations and as a conceptual approach to understand Asia-Europe cooperation as it happens in practice. This is done by providing the reader with an in-depth analysis of the elements that could shape a theoretical framework of interregionalism, followed by a number of case studies undertaken to empirically qualify the surplus value of Asia-Europe interregionalism – or its multilateral utility (Dent 2004) – within the multilayered international system. In this concluding chapter, the main findings of this volume are summarized with respect to three overarching questions:
• To what extent does the practice of Asia-Europe interregionalism shape the behavior of the actors involved and how does this affect the ongoing process of interregional cooperation?
