While the Iraq war and Middle East conflicts command the attention of the United States and most of the rest of the developed world, fundamental changes are occurring in East Asia. North Korea has tested nuclear weapons, even as it and South Korea have effectively entered a period of tepid detente; relations among China, Japan, and South Korea are a complex mixture of conflict and cooperation; and Japan is developing more forthright security policies, even as it deepens ties with the United States. Together, these developments pose vital questions for world stability and security.

In East Asian Multilateralism, prominent international foreign affairs scholars examine the range of implications of shifting alignments in East Asia. The first part delves into the intraregional dynamics, and the second assesses current economic conditions and policies within individual East Asian states. The third section examines the challenge of regional cooperation from the perspectives of local players, while the fourth analyzes the implications for foreign policy in the United States and in Asia.

This thorough review and assessment charts the preconditions and prospects for deeper multilateralism, poses tough questions about America's security and national interests in the region, and carries a plea for more serious institution-building in the North Pacific, using the ongoing six-party process in talks on North Korea as a point of departure.

Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Notes on Foreign Names and Transliterations
Introduction
Part I: Beyond the Hub and Spokes
Chapter 1. Critical Junctures and the Contours of Northeast Asian Regionalism
Chapter 2. The History and Practice of Unilateralism in East Asia
Chapter 3. The Outlook for Economic Integration in East Asia
Chapter 4. The New Trade Bilateralism in East Asia
Part II: Country Perspectives
Chapter 5. China's Evolving Multilateralism in Asia: The Aussenpolitik and Innenpolitik Explanations
Chapter 6. China and the Impracticality of Closed Regionalism
Chapter 7. Japan and the New Security Structures of Asian Multilateralism
Chapter 8. Korean Perspectives on East Asian Regionalism
Part III: Policy Implications
Chapter 9. A New Order in East Asia?
Chapter 10. The Security Architecture in Asia and American Foreign Policy
Conclusion
Contributors
Index