STRATEGIC AND ECONOMIC DYNAMICS OF NORTHEAST ASIA.

• Author: AYSON, ROBERT
• Position: Review

STRATEGIC AND ECONOMIC DYNAMICS OF NORTHEAST ASIA Editor: Rouben Azizian Published by: Centre for Strategic Studies, Wellington, in association with the Department of Political Studies, University of Auckland, 1999, 155pp.

It has become accepted wisdom amongst regional experts that the future of the Asia-Pacific region depends very largely on what goes on in North-east Asia. As we also continue to be reminded by officials and academics of New Zealand's own stake in the Asia-Pacific region, it is good to have this locally published collection of 13 essays at our fingertips. Many of these are revised versions of papers given in July 1998 at a conference in Auckland. Of course, time has not stood still since then. For instance, while the 1997 financial crisis understandably casts quite a shadow on parts of this volume, some regional countries have since bounced back rather more quickly than might have been expected. Yet this collection deals with fundamental questions which will remain relevant in Northeast Asia and beyond for several years to come.

The papers, edited by Auckland University's Rouben Azizian, are divided into three sections. The first deals with broader thematic issues such as the overall shape of the Northeast Asian security landscape and what Yongjin Zhang calls the `economic/ security nexus'. The second deals with North-east Asia's major powers and the relationships between them, and is capped off by Barry Gustafson's essay on EU-Asian linkages. The third section is something of a grab-bag, dealing with nuclear issues, the Korean peninsula and Canadian, Australian and New Zealand perspectives on North-east Asia.

Perhaps the overriding issue in this book is the degree to which great power positions in North-east Asia are changing. In this connection, there is a clear sense of China's relative rise and Russia's relative fall, and the continuing importance of the roles played by Japan and the United States. Interestingly, a debate can be detected between the idea of a great power triangle in North-east Asia (China, Japan and the United States), which Yongjin Zhang seems to imply in his very interesting second essay, and the inclusion of Russia in a regional `quadrilateral'. The latter is a feature of Gilbert Rozman's very thought provoking contribution, which is perhaps the book's highlight.

A clear sense is provided of the challenges facing each one of the major participants...