Introduction

There are three main reasons for studying countries and economic regions in East Asia in their international settings, and not country by country:

The rapidly growing mutual dependence among countries and economic regions in (South)east Asia.

The interaction between economic developments, (domestic and international) politics, and security relations.

The necessity to approach specific regional problems, such as maritime disputes, the issue of “transparency” and mutual confidence building etc. structurally different from the approaches developed in Europe and the Americas.