Regional variation and crisis: comparing EU and ASEAN integration dynamics

Abstract

The notion of regional integration has always animated the scholarly debate in the previous decades and continues to raise controversial queries. The accretion of functional powers to international organizations (IOs) and bodies outside the state has been a slow and steady process that has produced different levels of commitment and various theoretical and practical implications, depending on the regions and their political and social systems. They demand more decision-making prerogatives, moving the locus of important decisions in functional and sensitive areas like trade, visa monitoring, counter-terrorism away from states and into international arenas. This process has taken place in both the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations since the 1990s. This is in spite of heightened anti-supranational sentiments in many states in Europe, and the foundational norm of intergovernmental decision-making in Southeast Asia. This paper contributes to the current discussion by deepening the theoretical dimension and offering some potentially new insights about integration dynamics in the EU and in Southeast Asia. It addresses two main research questions: 1. To what extent does crisis continue to be the major driver in the process of supranational integration? 2. How do regional factors mediate the impact of crisis on integration outcomes in the EU and ASEAN? The paper is divided into three parts. Firstly, the scholarship on the impact of crisis on integration process is critically assessed. Secondly, the basic argument that under certain conditions, crisis leads to greater integration rather than disintegration, is evaluated, based on the setting up of new supranational institutions and the movement of more decisions and policy area outside the control of the nation-state. These criteria are then applied to the EU and ASEAN to understand regional variations in the impact of crisis on integration dynamics, and their implications in the most sensitive policy issues.