Sample Chapter - United Nations University

8 Yoshinobu Yamamoto
international organizations. 3 From this point of view, there has hardly
been any integration in East Asia. Even forums such as APT, for example,
are primarily continuing cooperative entities and do not involve
any delegation of national authority. Even APEC has hardly any elements
that restrict the prerogatives of individual nations. In order to
classify these continuing cooperative entities in the East Asian and Asia-
Pacific regions as (part of the process of) integration, some conceptual
manipulation is required. One way is to view regularized forums and (informal)
international regimes as preliminary steps towards integration
that lead to the delegation of national authority. But this is not reasonable,
either theoretically or empirically, because there is no guarantee that
a regularized forum or international regime will turn into an integrated
entity with the delegation of national authority; it could simply remain as
it is.
Another possible perspective is that although continuous cooperative
entities and international regimes do not involve the delegation of national
authority, they are (one type of) integration in that they act to restrain
(to various degrees) independent actions on the part of individual
nations. 4 Thus, if the delegation of national authority constitutes positive
integration and the restriction of national behaviour (freedom of action)
constitutes negative integration, continuous cooperative entities and regimes
represent negative integration. 5
(2) Theory: Theories of integration and theories of integrated entities
Looking at the forms taken by relationships between nations, such as in
Figure 1.1, there are several theoretical issues that need to be addressed.
One is the question of why the institutionalization of cooperation, as illustrated
in Figure 1.1, takes place: for example, why does one-off cooperation
turn into a regularized forum Why do regularized forums turn
into international regimes or stay as they are And, why do international
regimes turn into supranational organizations Theories addressing these
issues can be called theories of integration. Such theories include classical
integration theories that will be discussed again later, such as neofunctionalism
and communication theory. And many international regime
theories include theories on the formation and development of regimes:
for example, theories on the formation of international regimes by hegemonic
countries and theories on the formation of international regimes
through multilateral intergovernmental negotiation (such as solving social
dilemmas). There is a wide range – from explanations based on rational
choice theory or institutional theory (for example, institutions are
formed and develop path-dependently) to constructivist approaches (for
example, a given norm becomes widely accepted and becomes the basis
for integration).