아시아ㆍ유럽간 지역협력의 동인과 가능성 - ASEM의 국제 정치경제적 함의를 중심으로

Abstract

ASEM was launched as a comprehensive dialogue framework between Europe and Asia in March 1996. For the first time, Europe and Asia have met together on an equal footing and it is the beginning of a new chapter in cooperative relations between the two regions. For Europe, it was a strategic choice to establish a new relationship with Asia, based on equality and mutual respect, and to prevent the US from monopolizing the emerging Asian markets. For Asia, it was an important opportunity to penetrate into the exclusive European common market by upgrading relations with the integrated Europe in the post-Cold War era. Thus ASEM can be viewed as an outcome of (1) the Post-Cold War search for a manageable set of structures of global management; (2) the dialectic of globalization and regionalization: (3) the new diplomacy of regional cooperation being practised at the end of the 20th century.

ASEM is designed as an informal gathering for heads of member states to discuss current issues on regional cooperation. The objective of ASEM is to enhance the friendship between leaders, which is required to build a foundation of regional cooperation and to promote mutual understanding between participating nations. For Europe and Asia, AS EM is useful as a multilateral dialogue framework which can help them to keep a balance in their relations with the US and to hinder the US from implementing unilateral foreign policies. ASEM is expected to play a crucial role in making the US honestly comply with multilateralism. Therefore, for Europe and Asia, ASEM is a vehicle to send a message to the US.

In ASEM, Asia exists not merely as an object but as a subject that Europe is to deal with as an equal partner. This is a not unimportant milestone in the developing status of East Asia in international relations. So ASEM, as a dialogue process of regional cooperation, is the product of conscious decision-making on the part of significant regional leaders in East Asia and Europe.