Abstrakt
The main aim of this paper is to discuss standard explanations of the causes respective to each wave of economic regionalism and to introduce an alternative approach suggesting the existence of a common mechanism driving all three periods of intensified economic integration. This study argues for the general logic to economic regionalism based on the balance mechanism.
Proposed mechanism embraces standard theoretical explanations and places them into a broader context of one encompassing logic common to all three occurrences of economic regionalism. East Asia regionalism is used to demonstrate validity of the proposed general logic driving all three waves of economic regionalism.
Therefore the aim is to describe how the three waves of economic regionalism manifested themselves in the region of East Asia and how economic regionalism in East Asia reflects the assumed mechanism. Therefore, economic regionalism in East Asian is analysed within the historical context of all three waves of economic regionalism and their causes.
Central motivation is the existence of plethora of factors leading to the preference of the regional trade strategies in particular time periods without offering explanation common to all three main occurrences of regionalism. However, this study argues that every instance of economic turmoil leads to protectionist tendencies in the form of economic regionalism followed by the multilateral trade liberalisation mitigating negative effects of protectionist tendencies.