Introduction: East Asia, Regionalism and Foreign Direct Investment

Abstract

That the processes of globalisation have been a defining feature of contemporary society is beyond doubt, and within this East Asia stands as a vivid example of a region transformed by these global shifts (Dicken, 2003). Globalisation is a much used and contested term but is employed here to describe the deepening integration of global (capitalist) economic activity facilitated by the rapid development of information and communications technology (ICT) and the underlying trend of neo-liberalism. The union of these two forces has resulted in global, if widely uneven, economic expansion. Globalisation may also be seen as a continuation of the constant struggle between states and markets and although it has been claimed that states are increasingly losing out to other economic actors in this process, the multinational enterprise (MNE) in particular, the growing trend towards regionalism appears to reaffirm the continuing relevance of states as central units of analysis. Indeed, regionalism, a defining feature of the late 1990s and early twenty-first century, is a state-level process.¹ At the same time, in East Asia² this political process has emerged, at least in part, as a response to globalisation and the deepening régionalisation of economic activity. This interaction between régionalisation and regionalism, between private and state actors, is a key dynamic of the East Asian political economy today.