ABSTRACT
The European experience may be a possible blueprint for other regions, but the notion of a Euro-centric universalism, that takes the blueprint for granted, does serious harm for European engagement with the rest of the world, as I have argued elsewhere (Mayer 2008a, 2008b, 2010). Nevertheless, the chapter remains hopeful that bias transparency might lead to a more fruitful interregional dialogue in the on-going contestation over world order in the twenty-first century. What is true for each region in itself should be true for the debate between regions. The essential ingredient for intraregional and interregional cooperation in Europe and Asia is the aspirational concept of trust. ‘Trust’ in international relations is a necessary pre-condition and a normative driver for any functioning regional integration system. As Robert Putnam put it, ‘trust lubricates cooperation. The greater the level of trust within a community the greater the likelihood of cooperation. And cooperation itself breeds trust’ (Putnam 1993: 171f.). As advanced in detail below, historical memory and deep reconciliation remain the pre-conditions for trust and therefore for functioning regionalism in Europe and Asia.
