- Title: ‘East Asia’ as a ‘Region’: Implications of a Mega-Asian Perspective to East Asia
- Author: Jongseok Yoon, Kyunghee Choi, Joohyun Lee
- Journal: Asia Review 11(2)
- Publication Date: August, 2021
- Abstract
This study raises the need to expand the ‘East Asia’ concept beyond Northeast Asia centered on the Korean Peninsula to Southeast Asia, and to more actively examine the implications and tasks of East Asia, which are reconstructed through horizontal and external interactions (political, economic, and socio-cultural). Rather than being presented as a criticism and alternative to existing East Asian discourse and East Asian community perspective, the Mega-Asian approach raises the need and possibility of expanding the question of ‘East Asia’ to the Asian and global dimensions. The ASEAN+N strategy, which emerged through experiences of Southeast Asian countries that have formed regions in an ASEAN way, as a platform, suggests the need to start researching the use of ‘East Asian regions’, and ‘regions’ unit/concept through interaction with other regions. In the process, studies of socially constructed ‘East Asian regions’ derive challenges and implications of the Mega-Asian approach as a networked whole region, raising the need for a network perspective, including regional units and various actors.
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