Theorizing Regional Economic Cooperation in Southeast Asia

This subtopic discusses issues related to theoretical development on regional economic cooperation in Southeast Asia. It raises questions on how to better understand regional economic cooperation in Southeast Asia. Is it a unique regionalism that is different from other types of regionalism, and thus requires a new theory to understand it? Or could it be compared to other regionalism and thus sufficiently understood by existing theories on regionalism? What are the similarities and differences of the path to regional economic cooperation in Southeast Asia and other regions? What explains this variation? And what are the consequences? What additional insight that could possibly contributed by Southeast Asia’s experience on economic cooperation to theory development on regionalism and the study of IR in general? And vice versa, how do the existing theory and practical experience of other regions could contribute to understand regional economic cooperation in Southeast Asia?