In the 1990s both non-state-centred and state-centred regional processes of integration have emerged as increasingly important counterpoints to the globalisation project and US globalism. In some parts of the world, most notably Western Europe, regional identity reflects long-standing processes of economic and political integration, which have been facilitated by shared political and even cultural practices. In the "Asia-Pacific", by contrast, not only are processes of regional integration and coordination of more recent vintage, the very definition of the region has been a far more highly contested and far more incompletely realised project. The failure of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum to even begin to realise the hopes of its advocates is a powerful reminder of just how difficult regional and political cooperation in such circumstances can be. What is of far greater long-term significance than the faltering APEC project is the contradictory impact of US hegemony on regional processes. This article begins by exploring the limits of the new regionalism in the post-Cold War East Asia via a focus on the Cold War history of the region. It then turns to the changing character of US hegemony in the post-Cold War era. We emphasize that in the context of the complex shifts and continuities of the past five decades there are far more serious constraints on the new regionalism in the Asia-Pacific than in Europe, or the Americas, where regionalisation and regionalism is arguably most advanced. We also look closely at APEC and ASEAN+3, paying particular attention to the role of the United States, which has played a pivotal role in shaping regional outcomes. Finally, we consider the prospects for a distinctive East Asian form of regionalism grounded in a much narrower conception of the Asia-Pacific. We conclude that while there are profound limits on the coherence and unity of ASEAN+3 in the context of the continued salience of US power in the region, APEC has now clearly been displaced by ASEAN+3 as the most significant embodiment of the new regionalism in the Asia-Pacific
