Introduction

The 2007/8 global financial crisis had a profound impact on regional institution-building. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the European Union, the core of European regionalism. Regionalism is a key feature of contemporary world politics. In East Asia, regional institution-building emerged at the regional periphery of Southeast Asia. East Asia’s core countries, China and Japan, were reluctant or unable to provide the leadership necessary for regional institution-building. This has been changing since the Asian financial crisis of 1997/98 when one can trace the emergence of an East Asian regionalism from the periphery to include the centre. The literature generally recognises two waves of contemporary regionalism. So-called ‘old regionalism’ or ‘hegemonic regionalism’ emerged in the aftermath of World War II and peaked in the 1960s. Brexit also highlights the temporal nature of regionalism. In recent years, comparative regionalism scholarship has focused on questions such as background conditions for regional integration and the impact of crisis on regional institution-building.