Vinod K. Aggarwal and Min Gyo Koo
The United States and Northeast Asia, 2008
In this chapter, we show how the traditional institutional equilibrium in Northeast Asia has come under heavy strain in the triple post period: namely the post‐Cold War, the post‐financial crisis of 1997‐98, and the post‐September 11, 2001 attacks, thereby undergoing a dramatic transformation. Although Northeast Asian countries maintain their traditional commitment to bilateral alliance and multilateral globalism, the erosion of their confidence in the conventional approach is increasingly visible, as manifested by the burgeoning interest in preferential trade agreements (PTAs) and regional security dialogues, both official and unofficial, formal and informal, and bilateral and minilateral.