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This article employs the concept of ‘regional governance’ to analyze both the processes and outcomes of the emerging regional institutional arrangements in East Asia. It argues that while ASEAN has played a significant role in creating and sustaining the ‘processes’ of wider East Asian regional governance efforts, the level of achievement in translating these processes into tangible ‘outcomes’ remains severely constrained by great power rivalry, especially between Japan and China. By focusing on the areas of trade and finance, this article argues that the varying levels of outcomes between these two issue areas can be explained primarily by the degree of convergence between Japanese and Chinese interests. In particular, while Japan and China have a shared interest in contributing to the promotion of regional financial stability, they strongly disagree over the appropriate form and contours of a trade governance system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the formation and evolution of regional institutions in the Asia-Pacific and East Asia. Employing a historical institutionalist framework, this article argues that both Asia-Pacific and East Asian regional institutions were created at critical junctures, precipitated by extra-regional developments that called the legitimacy of existing institutional mechanisms into serious question. Preexisting institutions greatly shaped the institutional design of the subsequent regional institutions, revealing a path-dependent nature of institutional evolution. The timing and sequence of regional institution building is an important factor for explaining institutional change. Specifically, the analysis demonstrates that although new regional institutions with different memberships have emerged at critical junctures, the centrality of ASEAN as a source of institutional modus operandi has persisted within these institutions, notwithstanding changes in material circumstances and the recognition of inefficiencies and ineffectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]