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[ 185 ] policymaker’s library • select books published in 2008 Northeast Asia: Ripe for Integration? Vinod K. Aggarwal, Min Gyo Koo, Seungjoo Lee, and Chung-in Moon, eds. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2008 • 268 pp. This book explores Northeast Asia’s emerging institutional architecture in trade, finance, and security in the advent of triple “post shocks”—namely the post–Cold War, the post–Asian financial crisis of 1997–98, and the post–September 11 attacks. main argument The isomorphic pressures of triple post shocks have converged the interests of Northeast Asian countries in seeking free trade, financial stability, and collective security by securing inclusive “club goods,” as manifested by the proliferation of free trade agreements, preferential financial arrangements, and both formal and informal security dialogues. Such changes constitute a significantdeparturefromNortheastAsiancountries’traditionalcommitment to broad-based multilateral trade and financial organizations and bilaterallybased security mechanisms. policy implications • Although Northeast Asian countries’ growing preference for club goods— as opposed to public or private goods—are at the heart of the region’s drive for a new institutional architecture, best is for Northeast Asia to remain an open region, owing to its economic and security links to global politics and economies, particularly the one made by the U.S. However, the U.S. will be reduced to a secondary power in the region if it fails to engage in the region’s new institutional architecture. • Particularly in economic issue areas, regaining the trust of Northeast Asian countries in global multilateral institutions such as the WTO and the IMF is a key to preventing the region from sliding into an extremely exclusive regional bloc at the expense of U.S. interests. As a result, the U.S. should redouble its effort to revamp those stumbling global institutions. ...

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