ABSTRACT
The world economy is currently witnessing two distinct trends: globalization and regionalization. To some these are competing trends and we are offered the choice between the benefits of a liberalized multilateral trading order and the costs of balkanized, bloc-dominated, global disorder. This dichotomy is, however, a false one and the emerging global economy is considerably more complex. What is clear is that states and firms are pursuing a variety of different strategies as they seek to manufacture competitive and political advantage. This is especially clear in the case of the US which has adopted a strategy based on the ‘triple play’: support for GATT, a key role in APEC and leadership of an expanding NAFTA. In this chapter, we consider whether Japan might wish to assume leadership of an East Asian bloc, or ‘yen bloc’, not as part of a ‘Fortress East Asia’ de-linked from the rest of the global economy, but as one element of a wider strategy. 1
