ABSTRACT

This chapter compares the Asian Financial Crisis (AFC), the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the European sovereign debt crisis to show how nationalism and multilateralism inform responses to complex global governance challenges. For Northeast Asia it shows the limits of cooperation in Northeast Asia during the Asian Financial Crisis (1997–8) and the Global Financial Crisis ten years later. Asia has failed to create effective regional financial safety networks despite efforts in the ASEAN Plus Three format (Chiang Mai Initiative). Countries have focused on defending national sovereignty – whatever it takes – as a lesson from the trauma of the AFC. These nationalist self-help policies contrast with the EU’s defence of its multilateral polity and the euro – whatever it takes. In the EU the tensions between the constitutionalised multilateral monetary policy and the largely intergovernmental fiscal policy explain the travails of the EU in dealing with the Eurozone crisis. Over the last decade the EU has reinforced some aspects of the Economic and Monetary Union that the Maastricht Treaty had side-lined, such as banking union, fiscal governance and macro-prudential supervision. The preparedness of both regions for the next crisis is briefly evaluated.