In the 80's the countries of Asia-Pacific had first experienced 'economic miracles'. Then after a short period of stagnation and retrenchment in the 90's, the economic prosperity is again in full swing from the beginning of the 21st century. The major driving force behind this is the rapidly growing economic and technical cooperation among countries (China, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asian countries) in the region, attributable to liberalization of trade and Free Trade Agreements efforts which is expected to lead to the establishment of a common market like EU. This book is the most comprehensive compendium of expertise about the current economic exchanges and chances of a common market in the Asia-Pacific realm and their perspectives substantiated by case studies.

The book is the first attempt to offer a holistic and integrated exploration of the political-economic framework underpinning economic regionalism. In doing so it provides a much-needed contribution to the literature on international political economy, international relations and Asian political economy in relation to economic regionalism. The existing literature provides broad generalizations and limited discussion on economic integration (i.e. free trade agreements, FTA) with most analyses of regionalism generally contained to the field of economics with a focus on the welfare implications of FTAs, both for participating countries and the world as a whole. Readers of this book can view economic regionalism from a variety of perspectives with input from Chinese, Japanese and Korean research institutes, business and industry groups, and government officials. Drawing on the considerable country experience and expertise of the authors, the book attempts to unravel the paradox of the market-driven economic globalization process (regionalism) and address a serious gap in the current literature relating to the political-economic characteristics and strategies of China, Japan and Korea in relation to economic regionalism.

Functional integration in the economy has developed sufficiently in Northeast Asia. This study proposes a Northeast Asian version of the regional integration model. It suggests a crisis model and a political leadership model, with political leadership playing a critical role in utilizing crises to advance regional integration.

Throughout North Korea’s history, it has regarded external relations with suspicion and as a potential threat to its regime. With North Korea working towards denuclearization, there is now hope for an economic opening. This book examines the external economic strategies that North Korea may consider for its reforms and development, which are related to the East Asian economic integration process. This book emphasizes that considering theoretical factors as well as conditions of the North Korean economy, economic opening and integration should have high priority, anteceding or at least being parallel to economic reforms and transformation. Also, among various alternative strategies for achieving the goal of economic reform and development based on economic opening, the utilization of East Asian regional economic integration framework would be the best option for North Korea, because this framework can provide an opportunity for North Korea to overcome structural problems in its external economic relations and to circumvent political conflicts, thus leading to a smoother rapprochement towards economic opening. This book is timely as it shows how a new economic recovery strategy on the Korean Peninsula may be accomplished.

The Northeast Asia Economic Forum (NEAEF) is a regional nongovernmental organization created in 1991 to sponsor and facilitate research, networking, and dialogue relevant to the economic and social development of Northeast Asia. The Forum is also committed to promoting understanding and relations among the peoples of Northeast Asia, North America, and Europe. The main objective is for NEAEF to conduct research and conference activities aimed at functional economic cooperation such as cross-border energy, transportation and logistics infrastructure development, and capital mobilization. The Forum holds annual conferences, workshops, and seminars for planning, facilitating, coordinating, and implementing international and interdisciplinary solutions to common policy problems. It is the only nongovernmental regional organization in which all the nations of Northeast Asia and the US are consistent and active participants. For the year 2014, NEAEF in collaboration with the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP), cooperated in efforts toward achieving closer economic and financial cooperation in Northeast Asia, and continued its focus on research, the annual conference, and meetings aimed at financing regional economic integration and establishment of the Northeast Asian Bank for Cooperation and Development (NEABCD). This work aims to promote functional economic cooperation in terms of cross-border resources, energy supplies, infrastructure construction, capital mobilization, and institutional development. NEAEF, as planned for the year 2014, facilitated conference and meeting activities in which experts presented their perspectives, views, ideas, concrete proposals, and strategies relevant to the issues of a regional institution for financial cooperation. This volume, which is the final part of a series of proceedings titled Financing Regional Economic Integration and Functional Preface Contributors Introduction and Overview Statements by Hosts and Country Representatives Part I. Regional Economic Cooperation in Northeast Asia: Country Perspectives - A Korean Perspective (Chang Jae Lee)? - A Chinese Perspective (Zhang Jianping) - A Japanese Perspective (Maeda Tadashi) - A Russian Perspective (Pavel Minakir) Part II: Energy Cooperation: Energy Infrastructure and Physical Connectivity Japan’s Energy Challenges and Potential for Regional Cooperation (Tanabe Yasuo) Energy Issues: Security, Alternative Systems, and Low-Carbon Futures (Terry Surles) Prospects for a Cross-border Power System in Northeast Asia (Iinuma Yoshiki) Energy Cooperation in Northeast Asia: A Russian Perspective (Sergey Sevastianov)

The Northeast Asian security environment is closely linked to Korea’s growth perspectives for the future. The spectacular rise of the South Korean economy in the past half century, also known as “Miracle on the Han River,” has been duly highlighted as one of the most successful cases of economic development worldwide. However, among the factors curbing South Korea’s growth perspectives has been, from the very beginning of its rise, the coexistence of the difficult neighbour to the North, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. While in the cold war this coexistence has been taken as inevitable, after the end of the cold war there were hopes to overcome this obstacle to further growth either through collapse or enhanced cooperation with the North, neither of which became reality. North Korea’s unprecedented aggressiveness and development of long-range ballistic missiles and nuclear devices, made this threat truly an international question with multilateral talks coming into existence as ad-hoc measures to cope with the nuclear crisis. It was then that the idea of a Northeast Asian Security Community was born. The contributions in this book discuss how a peaceful solution of the security problems could not only enhance stability of Korea’s economy and reduce the defense burden considerably (the so-called peace dividend), but would facilitate regional investments safer and regional solutions for common economic problems. When discussing the possibilities of a security framework or, in an institutionalized form, security community, in Northeast Asia, the authors in this volume are realistic as to not fall into the trap of wishful thinking, which so often has characterized approaches to North Korea resulting in disappointment. The past two years again saw the rising of tensions in Northeast Asia and the masterful way in which even an impoverished and isolated country can play its cards. While it seems a new ice age between the two Koreas is possible, nevertheless and maybe even more than ever the search for a stable security framework for Northeast Asia as a precondition for peaceful economic cooperation and development will go on. The chapters in this volume contribute to the ongoing debate to secure peace and development in Northeast Asia, making this book of interest to both academics and policy-makers alike.