Asia-10’s stellar performance and provisional decline have prompted competing strands of scholarship to advance various development drivers, i.e. states, markets and culture. After an introductory presentation of nation-states’ shifting roles and conceptualisations, this paper purports to provide a critical overview of the state-centric approach. The next step is to ascertain whether network theories can improve upon the statist perspective. The paper concludes that neither approach does justice to the complexity of East Asian development, and suggests that an eclectic approach is a better formula.