ABSTRACT
This book views East Asia through the lens of triangles. In stages from the end of the Cold War, the forces of triangularity accelerated. Yet, in the 2020s, bipolarity made a comeback. The interplay of these two forces presents a compelling picture of an era.
Paving the way were economic interdependencies making it difficult for countries to stand squarely on one side or the other, porous national identity gaps between pairs of countries, and a three-decade interregnum of rising hopes of being able to play a balancing or mediating role in Sino-US relations. Three driving forces are depicted in the triangular sweep across the region: the Cold War legacy, the importance of South Korea as the oft-aspiring swing player, and the capacity of the Japan-US alliance to shape great power relations. East Asian triangles to the early 2020s exhibited an unusual mixture of distinctive elements: deep-seated security distrust, extraordinary economic interdependence, and a combustible composition of potent historical resentments and civilizational confidence. Nine chapters explore these in a triangular context. Each also asks whether accelerating bipolarity will have a transformative effect on triangularity. This is likewise the theme of the concluding chapter on adjusting to bipolarity.
