Social Science Japan Journal, page 1 of 3

Social Science Japan Journal Advance Access published June 8, 2006

...................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Book Review
HIRASHIMA Kenji/University of Tokyo
A World of Regions: Asia and Europe in the American Imperium, by Peter J. Katzenstein. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2005, xiv+297 pp., $22.95 (paperback ISBN 0-8014-7275-x) doi:10.1093/ssjj/jyl011 Since the end of the Cold War, we have been witnessing a global resurgence of regional initiatives. In Europe, after the single market program led to the introduction of a common currency, the European Union (EU) was enlarged to include ten new, mostly former socialist, member states in 2004. In Asia, the member states of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) began to advance widening the membership beyond regime differences. Intergovernmental forums such as ASEAN+3 (China, Japan, and Korea), and more recently the East Asia Summit, have been successively launched. The inclusion of India, Australia, and New Zealand has even blurred the geographical identity of Asia. Other examples include APEC (AsiaPacific Economic Co-operation), NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), and MERCOSUR (Mercado Comn del Sur), created in 1989, 1990, and 1991 respectively. No less striking than this phenomenon of prosperous regional projects is the distinctiveness that respective regionalism exhibits. Why are some regional projects more successful than others? What factors account for the vast difference between deep and shallow integration in terms of scope and institutionalization? In this masterpiece, Peter J. Katzenstein provides a thoughtfully elaborated framework that enables a nuanced comparison of regionalism in world politics. Among the fundamental processes that deeply influence contemporary nation states, Katzenstein distinguishes globalization from internationalization. Whereas the former refers to a process that transcends space and compresses time, the latter refers to territorially based exchanges across borders (p. 13). Accordingly, while regionalism is to be understood as purposeful attempts to coordinate public policies by a group of states against the challenges of globalization, it goes comfortably handin-hand with intensified internationalization, which reaffirms nation states as the basic actors in the international system. Katzenstein emphasizes not only that both globalization and internationalization commonly render contemporary regions porous in contrast to the sealed ones of the past, but also that regional porous-ness is enhanced in the vertical relations that link regions and regional states to America and to subregions. Although the word porous was used earlier by Helen Wallace (2002) to depict the interconnectedness of the European continent and Europes difficulties controlling its borders, Katzensteins insight is to qualify porous-ness as a constitutive element of regions in general. The most illuminating insight comes from the comparison of Europe and Asia, two anomalous regions, where the core regional states of Germany and Japan intermediate between the respective porous regions and the American imperium. Katzenstein shows how the institutional complex of Europes formal regionalism based on legal norms and the informal regionalism of ethnic capitalism
The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo. All rights reserved.

Page 2 of 3

Book Review

in Asian market networks emerged from the postwar US policy of multilateralism toward Europe and bilateralism toward Asia. As the technology and production networks remain hierarchical and nationally controlled in Asia but egalitarian and homogeneous in Europe, the two regions exhibit different orders in the various policy domains of the economy and security, as well as in culture. Building on the rich findings of his previous research, Katzenstein demonstrates that the Japanese developmental state and German semi-sovereign state have contributed to shaping remarkably contrasting orders in these policy domains. Regarding security policy, for example, Katzenstein says [m]ultilateral and international policy approaches have great political appeal and enjoy great legitimacy (in Germany). Japan adheres to different norms and follows a different course of action. It values social norms more than legal ones and prizes informal over formal contacts. This is also true of other Asian states (p. 148). It is further interesting to note that Germany and Japan shape their respective relations to subregions in the same ways that they adapt to the American imperium. Japan, which seeks informal access to the US through markets, money, and [the] middleman (p. 184), tends to sidestep the need to reach formal understandings for subregional arrangements with neighboring countries. In contrast, Germany, in approaching the US, resorts to the so-called societal foreign policy system by means of numerous para-public institutions and has correspondingly formalized its subregional policy framework in multilateral cooperation with other member states. The same logic is applied to the ways both states perceive American influence; while external pressure (gaiatsu) is institutionalized as the impetus for change within the otherwise immobile Japanese domestic politics, in the case of Germany it is filtered by the multi-tiered European polity, which Germany itself has substantially framed. These are examples of some of the insights readers can obtain from Katzensteins careful and systematic analysis. Katzenstein extends his argument on porous regions to South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, where unlike in Europe or Asia, no core regional states have emerged. Yet, if this book is intended to be a contribution to studies of world politics, more pages devoted to former superpower Russia and the other successor states of the previous Eastern block would be welcome. Although, in relation to Europe, the eastward enlargement of NATO as well as the reinvigoration of the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) after the end of the Cold War and the subsequent establishment of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) are dealt with at length. Furthermore, complementary accounts of the roles played by international organizations represented by the UN or nongovernmental organizations, as well as transnational social movements empowered by globalization, would arguably make his picture of the contemporary world order more complete. Regarding European integration specifically, specialists might be inclined to raise counter arguments for the significant roles played by the other member states. However, it is undeniable that Germany has been a strong proponent of integration from the beginning and has long functioned as the paymaster for the community. The German policy of semi-sovereignty has more congruence and affinity to the European system of associated sovereignty than a French or British one. On the contrary, at least since reunification, Germany has been gradually losing its attractiveness as a model to be emulated by other member states. To comprehend the dynamism of the institutional complexities of the EU therefore, the analytical scope should be widened horizontally. Nonetheless, A World of Regions is undeniably one of the most important recent contributions to the study of comparative regionalism in the context of the world politics. Above all, Katzenstein has deepened our knowledge about the multiple differences between European and Asian regionalisms

Book Review

Page 3 of 3

from an American vantage point. For those who would undertake serious regional comparison in the future, this is truly an indispensable academic resource to draw from. Katzenstein has provided us with a masterful testimony to the importance of area-based knowledge and the validity of methodological eclecticism.

Reference
Wallace, Helen. 2002. Europeanisation and Globalisation: Complementary or Contradictory Trends? In New Regionalisms in the Global Political Economy, eds. Shaun Breslin, Christopher W. Hughes, Nicola Phillips and Ben Rosamund. London and New York: Routledge: 137149.