| Taking the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis as an opportunity,the multilateral cooperation in East Asia and the corresponding institutional construction formally started.After 20 years' development,East Asia has established a multi-layered,pluralistic,and diversiform institutional system.Unfortunately,as an independent unit,multilateral cooperation in East Asia has never developed or deepened as people expect.Regarding East Asia,which is a specific level,as an independent system,the existing studies investigate the intrinsic relationship among the nations,the international institutions,and the international cooperation results in this system.So that the studies attribute the difficulty of deepening multilateral cooperation in East Asia to the limitation of "soft institutionalism" and the "institutional overreach" caused by the competition over the regional dominance among the major powers.Based on this,a "prescription",including increasing the institutionalization of the regional cooperation,adjusting the relationship among the regional major powers and integrating the existing regional multilateral cooperation institutions has been given.However,these two projects neither match the regional characteristics of East Asia nor have practical conditions that can be implemented.Profound consideration on the studies is needed: The “failure” of theoretical research on promoting the multilateral cooperation in East Asia and its institutional construction should be due to mistakes in the analysis of the reasons,or it is really “at the end of their resources” under the current conditions.At present,international cooperation at any level has been deeply embedded in a criss-crossing network of international institutional complexity.Since the beginning of multilateral cooperation in East Asia,it has been subject to the constraints and influence of other levels of cooperation.Researches confined to the relationship of "nation-international institution",cannot explain and solve the problems.But we can try to reexamine these two interrelated problems,under the logic of interaction between the international institutions: First,what are the core problems affecting the deepening of multilateral cooperation in East Asia? Second,in response to this question,what should be the direction of future institutional construction? Therefore,this article examines from both vertical and horizontal dimensions,adopts the “international institution-international institution” interaction as a consistent model of thinking,and follows the basic steps of finding problems,analyzing problems,and solving problems,based on the theory of institutional complexity.According to the former,the dissertation is divided into five chapters,in addition to the Introduction and Conclusion.Chapter 1,clarifies the basic concepts,establishes the theoretical perspective of the analysis of this article.In the beginning,identifies the concept of international institution,institutional interaction,and complexity of international institutions generally.In order to define the connotation of “East Asian cooperation”,the importance of limiting the scope of the institutional construction into East Asia area must be stick out,regards the region as an independent unit,as well as a specific level of analysis in the international system.Afterwards,put forward institutional complexity as a theoretical perspective of the analysis,and in accordance with the basic steps of logical extension,design a basic thread,which consist of “generation and characteristics of the institutional complexity network-operational mechanisms and paths affecting the Cooperative results-adjusting-the means of influencing the results”.Chapter 2,recognizes and summarizes the core problem of the regional multilateral cooperation in East Asia through combing with the current situation of cooperation practice and the institutional development.Firstly,this chapter starts with sorting out the existing regional multilateral cooperation institutions in East Asia.It turns out that this region has established an overall framework to promote regional integration and community building,has formed two or more multilateral cooperative arrangements in the fields of economic,trade,finance and security as well.Secondly,it can be found out by observing that countries in East Asia are more likely to prefer “circumvent” the regional multilateral cooperation institutions and to choose the bilateral agreements or global multilateral institutional frameworks when they are facing with specific cooperation issues.It might cause the regional multilateral cooperation institutions in a danger of being "marginalized." Finally,propose that "multilateral thinking and bilateral action" is the reason why multilateral cooperation in East Asia is such difficult to deepen.Meanwhile,we have an implicit premise right here,surrounding the problem of regional cooperation,is that there is an institutional complexity network that overlaps at different levels.Chapter 3,as the starting point of the analysis of the problem with the theory of institutional complexity,this chapter explores the causes of institutional complexity phenomenon in East Asia and highlights the characteristics of East Asia's multilateral cooperation arrangements embedded in the institutional network.Firstly,as an independent unit,East Asia is a special group of small number countries.The regional multilateral cooperation institutions created based on this regional reality,gradually separates from the global multilateral institutions,and at the same time,in the horizontal dimension,the region is separated from each other because of the different forms of composition of the country group inside the region.Secondly,considering East Asia as a whole and look inside,the serious imbalance in economic development among countries has led to further differentiation of the region into small groups of countries with overlapping internal members and complicated external relations.The endogenous characteristics of regional security issues leads to the decentralization and confrontation of security interests among nations,which results in the bilateral military alliances formed during the Cold War era are still active.So that a complex network of institutions in East Asia has been formed.Finally,from the perspective of the interaction of “international institution-international institution”,the creation of a multilateral cooperation institutions in East Asia do not begin on “a clean slate”,the normative value and basic rules of them are influenced,shaped and restricted by global multilateral institutions and bilateral cooperation tradition.Chapter 4,establishes a link between institutional complexity and regional multilateral cooperation in East Asia,analyzes the operational mechanisms and paths of the influence from former to the latter.Firstly,the important structural impact of the institutional complexity is to give the members of the overlapping international institutions the opportunity of “forum shopping” in the practice of cooperation.However,it does not,in a priori,result in a specific level of cooperation being " Marginalized".The reason why the multilateral cooperation institutions in East Asia are difficult to be "selected" comes from the interaction of the uncertainty of regional multilateral cooperation institutions and the pragmatism intention of regional cooperation(both are under the principle of "national priority").It provides an explanation for the issue of "multilateral thinking and bilateral action" presented by East Asian cooperation.Secondly,in order to retain the opportunity of “forum shopping”,countries do not hurry to coordinate the norms between the different institutions,which might cause the “fragmentation” status of institutional complexity.The impact of the institutional complexity to international cooperation is shaped by the degree and type of institutional fragmentation.At present,the conflictive fragmentation between the fundamental institutions at all levels and among the different institutions at the same level related to the cooperation in East Asia,is the main crux that the cooperation at other levels weaken rather than promote the regional multilateral cooperation in East Asia.Chapter 5,aims to promote the development and to deepen the multilateral cooperation in East Asia,plans for the future direction of the regional multilateral cooperation institutions' construction.Firstly,recognize that East Asia has been and will be in an institutional complexity network for a long period of time.Under this premise,it proposes to shape cooperative/synergistic fragmentation interactions by managing the fragmented linkages between the fundamental institutions,as a new thought of the method to support the multilateral cooperation of East Asia.This chapter assesses the possibility of institutional interaction management in East Asia and determines the two management priorities which are cognitive interaction and regulatory interaction.Based on these views,by analyzing the institutional interaction management between the two levels of global and East Asia firstly,it illustrated that in order to solve the problem of mutual adaptation between global universality and regional characteristics.It is necessary to strengthen the institutional capability of cognitive innovation,understanding and avoiding the cognitive conflicts,as they are also the keys for the future construction of the multilateral cooperation in East Asia.in order to solve the problems of intra-regional conflicts and institutional dispersion,in the management of institutional interactions between regional and bilateral institutions,the multilateral cooperation institutions of East Asia should improve the ability of cognitive innovation and play their parts well as an information summary and communication platform under the principle of “role division of labor”.The ultimate goal of East Asia multilateral cooperation institutions' construction is to build an overall institutional framework of East Asia cooperation,based on the cooperative/synergistic fragmentation of the fundamental institutions among the three levels. |
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