While the Iraq war and Middle East conflicts command the attention of the United States and most of the rest of the developed world, fundamental changes are occurring in East Asia. North Korea has tested nuclear weapons, even as it and South Korea have effectively entered a period of tepid détente; relations among China, Japan, and South Korea are a complex mixture of conflict and cooperation; and Japan is developing more forthright security policies, even as it deepens ties with the United States. Together, these developments pose vital questions for world stability and security.

In East Asian Multilateralism, prominent international foreign affairs scholars examine the range of implications of shifting alignments in East Asia. The first part delves into the intraregional dynamics, and the second assesses current economic conditions and policies within individual East Asian states. The third section examines the challenge of regional cooperation from the perspectives of local players, while the fourth analyzes the implications for foreign policy in the United States and in Asia.

This thorough review and assessment charts the preconditions and prospects for deeper multilateralism, poses tough questions about America's security and national interests in the region, and carries a plea for more serious institution-building in the North Pacific, using the ongoing six-party process in talks on North Korea as a point of departure.

Kent E. Calder is the Edwin O. Reischauer Professor and director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of Embattled Garrisons. Francis Fukuyama is the Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy and director of the International Development Program at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. He is the author or editor of dozens of books, including Nation-Building, also published by Johns Hopkins.