Regimes and the Regional Order

This concluding chapter assesses the interplay between the multiple regime clusters discussed thus far and the broader Asia-Pacific region over time. It examines how regime combinations shaped the regional order, but also how prevailing regional trends reverberate to influence different regimes. Altered global conditions favored the emergence of particular types of regimes while precluding others. Yet the chapter also analyzes how different mixes of regimes reshaped the Asia-Pacific regional order in defining ways. It argues that the regional order has gone through three discrete phases. The first was predominantly shaped and reinforced by American hegemony and Cold War bipolarity. Next, a second regional order saw the advance of regional economic synergies as the Asia-Pacific shifted from hostile bipolarity into an order characterized by peace and prosperity. Finally, a third regional order has been taking shape roughly since the global financial crisis (2008–2009).