Japanese and American Perspectives on East Asian Regionalism

Regular convening of East Asian summits and rising concernsabout the American dollar have heightened interest in Asiancooperation. Japan will necessarily play a central role in regionalendeavors, and the United States must at least acquiesce ifregional coordination is to progress. Among American accounts,the most theoretically elaborate and systematically comparativeanalysis is A World of Regions, while Remapping East Asia providesthe most authoritative overview of recent developments. Japanese-languagestudies of East Asian regionalism agree that regional cooperationis far less institutionalized and rule-based in East Asia thanin Europe, but they include a wider range of opinion about thedesirability and feasibility of cooperation. Skeptics on theright warn that efforts to create a regional community wouldweaken the United States–Japan alliance, undermine universalvalues, and cede regional leadership to China. Optimists onthe left counter that regional cooperation holds out the onlyhope for ameliorating nationalist conflicts. Most numerous arecentrists arguing for active cooperation on economics and theenvironment, but only cautious moves on politics and security.Despite their caution, Japanese authors convey a sense thatchanges to the American-led global and regional order are occurringand likely will continue.     

Making a Difficult Decade Easier

Premier Wen Jiabao has played a major part inkeeping relations steady between China and the EU This year will see two meetings of the China-EU Summit. The first meeting, originally scheduled to be held in Beijing last October     

The stages of managed care regulation: developing better rules

The managed care industry is at a crossroads. Belief in the ability of market forces alone to create an environment fostering quality health care at lower cost is eroding. Regulators across the country are confronted with a growing consumer backlash against managed care. As a result, states have passed managed care reform legislation at unprecedented rates. In doing so, states are confronted with a patchwork of federal intervention and preemption. We examine the stages of these recent state and federal developments and evaluate them in terms of the traditional objectives of a reasonably functioning health care system: quality care, access, and cost containment.     

Benefit estimation goes to court: The case of natural resource damage assessments

This article evaluates the feasibility of performing natural resource damage assessments under the current Superfund legislation. Using the analyses developed for two recent cases, it explains the sources of the substantial divergences between plaintiffs' and defendants' estimates of these damages. Three factors explain the differences in damage estimates: (1) the time horizon used and treatment of capitalization effects of past damages; (2) the extent of the market assumed in estimating the effects of a release of hazardous wastes on the demand for the affected natural resource; and (3) the character and availability of substitutes for the resource involved.