Global Problems, Regional Solutions?: The Challenge of EU-US-Asian Cooperation in the Post-Cold War International System

Abstract

The globalisation of national security has lagged behind the globalisation of the national economy : states continue to define security threats largely in regional terms and seek regional solutions, whereas states increasingly approach issues of political economy as global in scope and solution. This disjunction between the regionalisation of national security and globalisation of national economic welfare creates a potential barrier to interstate cooperation, particularly if `national security' has two interdependent components: the economic and the military-strategic. Whereas there are a wide variety of f ora that cope with common threats to economic stability ranging from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank to the OECD to the G-8, there is not a similar set of inclusive f ora for addressing threats to system-wide military-strategic instability. Rather, there is a disjointed and oftentimes discordant system of security institutions, many of which are anchored by the United States and only indirectly bind the fates of Europe and Asia together. The interests that Asia and Europe share in common have been largely mediated by the United States. There is a common perception that the relationship between Asia and Europe is strictly mercantile rather than strategic ; Europe plays at best a peripheral role in Asian affairs and Asia plays virtually no role at all in European affairs. The renewed interest in regional solutions to the problems of economic growth and stability has made the United States less capable and willing to