BUILDING A NORTHEAST ASIAN REGIONAL COMMUNITY: THE CHANGING POLITICS OF FINANCE AND ENERGY.

This paper argues that economic crisis, rather than state strategy, is the most important catalyst for formal East Asian political-economic integration. Detailed chronological evidence from two divergent issue areas is used to demonstrate this proposition. The cases of financial institution building and energy policymaking between 1995 and 2005 are considered in particular detail. The Asian financial crisis is found to have catalyzed formation of inter-personal policy networks within Northeast Asia, and to have played strategic agenda-setting roles. Those indirect functions apparently complement and transcend the impact of crisis in creating formal policy structures. In the energy sector, comparable, although less elaborate, integrative processes have been called into motion by sharply rising energy prices-a different sort of economic crisis-especially during the 2002-2005 period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]