Regionalism or Globalism? Balancing The Vision of Single Market and Integration to Global Economy

While the previous subtopic attempts to understand the path and the way forward for the AEC by relating to the broader theoretical development on regionalism, the following three subtopics attempts to understand the path and the way forward for the AE by examining the practice of the AEC specifically in three areas: its relations to globalism, its relations to domestic sphere, and its relations to other areas such as political, security and socio-cultural issues. This subtopic, in particular, discusses the first two objectives of AEC, that is to create a single market and to better integrate to the global economy. While these two elements should complement each other to support the broader vision of the AEC, some see also tensions in the practice and realization of these two visions. The efforts to integrate to global economy, for example, is often seen as compensating the vision to build a stronger single market internally. Therefore, this subtopic raises questions on the pros and cons of this debate. It also raises questions specifically on some other issues, such as how far the AEC has achieved the vision of single market? What have been done and need to be done in liberalizing the movement of goods, services, investment, skilled labors, and capital? Similarly, what have been done and need to be done in integrating the AEC with other regions and global economy in general? What are opportunities and challenges facing AEC by looking at the preparation and implementation of the AEC so far? Finally, how should AEC balance the vision of single market and integration to global economy?