ASEAN+3: The Failure of Global Governance and the Construction of Regional Institutions

The chapter falls within the framework of the debate between rationalists and constructivists in the international relation's community. I argue that the IR community should not overstress the variation in metatheoretical orientations, such as rational choice capturing the logic of consequentialism and social constructivism covering either the logic of appropriateness or the logic of arguing. Since both modes of action are ideal types that hardly ever happen in real life, one should rather stick to a combination of the two. I illustrate my arguments through the analysis of the ASEAN plus three process. The development of tins new institution in East Asia, comprising the ten members of ASEAN plus China, Japan and South Korea is an obvious test case for the problems connected with global governance, since it originates in the Asian Crisis of 1997/1998, which is seen as an example of the failure of global financial institutions - most notably the IMF and the World Bank.