Nation States And East Asian Community

NATION STATES AND EAST ASIAN COMMUNITY: A CASE STUDY OF MALAYSIA AND CHINA UKM-GUP-TKS-07-12-065 DR. ZARINA @ ZAIRINA BINTI OTHMAN (KETUA PENYELIDIK), DR. SITY BINTI DAUD, PROFESOR MADYA DR. RASHILA BINTI HJ. RAMLI ABTRACT So far, this 21

st

century has seen an increasing number of regional groupings in

international politics. Such groupings have been formed partly as a counterweight to the uneven globalization of the world economy. Globalization has inevitably generated new conflicts and new struggles, with some forces of globalization imposed on people from governmental entities, while other forces emerge from the responses and interactions of individuals, organized groups, and business entities. While Europeans, champions of globalization, have benefited from forming the European Union, Asia has somehow lagged behind in forming new regional groupings. The Asian economic crisis of 19971998 forced international attention on the world's interdependence with this region. Subsequently, as the region was slowly recovering from that crisis, the Asian tsunamis again focused policymakers and political analysts specifically on the East Asian community. This research explores what the formation of an organized East Asian Community (EAC) would mean, and how likely it is to occur. Based on the case of Malaysia, a founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, an important ASEAN "dialogue partner," this research will seek to meet three objectives: 1) to identify internal and external factors that either encourage or constrain the formation of an EAC; 2) to analyze the impact of the regional groupings on the identity of individual states; and 3) to contribute toward the building of new theories related to international security and political identities.

Methodology will include

triangulation—the combining of three or more research techniques--to cross-check the validity and credibility of the qualitative data collected. The three techniques are: 1) primary key informant interviews; 2) secondary key informant interviews; and 3) content

analysis.

By studying the idea of an EAC from economic, political, and security

perspectives, this study will add to the so-far limited literature related to the subject.