ABSTRACT
Within the broad literature of international relations, the relationship between economic interdependence and security remains controversial (Ripsman and Blandchard 1996/97). What we know is only that among trading states economic interdependence seems to affect security links. Yet we do not know how important these economic ties are in shaping security behavior and to what extent and how economic links affect states’ behaviors. The argument that economic interdependence is a catalyst for peace relies largely on a rationalist perspective that, as long as states benefit from trading, they will not go to war (Barbieri and Schneider 1999; Mansfield and Pollins 2001; Russet and Oneal 2001). At the same time, we also know that power transition, nuclear proliferation, long-range missiles, defiant dictators, non-democracy, historical and territorial disputes, arms races, national division, nationalism, and a lack of multilateral cooperative platforms may increase the probability of conflicts and full-scale wars among states (Ikenberry and Moon 2008). And no other region has such vibrant conflictual elements clouding regional dynamics in the twenty-first century than does Northeast Asia (Lake and Morgan 1997; Solingen 1998; Lemke 2002; Choi and Moon 2010). 1
