31. Realism and Regionalism: American Power and German and Japanese Institutional Strategies During and After the Cold War
- Author:
- Joseph M. Grieco
- Publication Date:
- 04-1990
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute of European Studies
- Abstract:
- Germany's foreign economic policy places enormous weight on formal European institutions. In contrast, Japan has not had an institutionalist orientation in regard to its East Asian neighbors. This paper addresses the question of why Germany and Japan differ so greatly on this issue of regional economi. institutions. It suggests that the differences observed in German and Japanese interests in regard to such arrangements constitute a puzzle if they are examined from the perspective of liberal ideas about the functional bases of international collaboration, or from the viewpoint of realist propositions about hegemony and cooperation and about the impact of polarity on state preferences. The paper also puts forward a realist-inspired analysis (focusing on American power in the post-Cold War era as well as American national strategy in the early years of that conflict) that might help account for the strong German bias in favor of regional economic institutions and the equally pronounced Japanese aversion to date for such arrangements.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Cold War, and International Organization
- Political Geography:
- United States, Japan, America, Europe, Israel, East Asia, Asia, and Germany