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China is now second only to the US as a world economic power. Its economic rise has challenged US ability to fundamentally shape the world trade order. However, the importance of the rise of the Chinese economy for international security affairs is less clear. The key analytical issue for international politics and for an understanding of the sources of power is whether economic power is fungible in international security affairs, whether it can independently determine the strategic alignments of small states. This is also the key question in assessing the implications of China's economic rise for the East Asian security order. The political-economy literature argues that trade dependence can lead small states to realign within great power politics, regardless of the military balance. However, poor case selection challenges this prior literature. By using contemporary East Asia as a source of multiple bilateral case studies, I argue that the economic dependence of a small state on a great economic power is insufficient to influence independently small state strategic alignment preferences and that China's rising economic power is not fungible in East Asian security affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the East Asian perspective on the impaired ability of Americans to apprehend East Asia due to the cultural constructs and contradictions with they confront the region's industrial and economic prowess. It would be far better if we would extrude antique conceptions of race and of Orient and Occident entirely from the ongoing debate. Instead, we should focus on what really divides East and West, which is almost always some predictable and intelligible conflict of interest, and recognize what unites East and West in a common endeavor of development. A U.S. policy of constructive disengagement from the asymmetrical relations of the past would not only leave more room for Asian autonomy, but also aid the U.S. by reducing its security burdens. In addition, such a policy could lead to a productive period of looking inward that could help domestic U.S. industries revive and flourish, which after all is the best way to meet the Asian challenge. We need to think about a positive disengagement that prepares for truly equal and mutually beneficial relations in the future. We need to talk openly about what ties us together and what pushes us apart, what we really think about each other, how to build bridges of mutual understanding, and what America's East Asia has truly been about.