East Asian economic integration is on the rise. In the past decade, all of the region's powers have begun negotiating free trade agreements with their neighbours. They are also exploring broader regional options, such as the creation of an East Asian summit or free trade area. These developments have not always been welcomed by observers in other parts of the world. Some fear that they mark a turn away from integration into the global economy and herald the emergence of a closed, inward-looking bloc.
Naoko Munakata is a director in the manufacturing industries bureau of Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry and a former visiting fellow at the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution.
"More than 20 years of strong economic growth in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong and China has led to significant structural changes in those countries and has resulted in rapid economic integration in East Asia. This economic integration, in turn has fundamentally impacted on the world economy and on global politics. Munakata's Transforming East Asia provides an excellent review of these important events." -Jordan Shan, Victoria University and Peking University, Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, 11/1/2007 |"I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in understanding the broad array of institutional arrangements for trade and investment in the East Asian region. A great strength of this study is the way in which Munakata analyzes these developments in the context of the changing role of the major powers in the region, a story that continues to unfold. Meticulously researched, and written in an engaging style, Transforming East Asia is a useful introduction for those seeking a comprehensive overview of the growth of regional economic integration and cooperation over the past twenty years, but it also points the way towards useful policy prescriptions and potential scenarios for the future." -Ann Capling, University of Melbourne, The China Journal |"This volume catches hold of a fast-moving topic and provides a meticulously documented account of how the governments in East Asia are working together to develop institutional frameworks for the growing cross-border economic ties, beyond what has already been achieved through unilateral trade liberalization and the operation of market forces." -Wendy Dobson, University of Toronto, Pacific Affairs
