William Grimes, Associate Professor, Department of International Relations, Boston University

William Grimes is an associate professor in the Department of International Relations at Boston University, where he specializes in Japanese and East Asian political economy. He is the author of Unmaking the Japanese Miracle: Macroeconomic Politics, 1985-2000 (Cornell, 2001) and co-editor of Japan's Managed Globalization: Adapting to the 21st Century (ME Sharpe, 2003). This talk will be drawn from his new book manuscript, Currency and Contest: The Great Power Politics of East Asian Financial Regionalism (expected 2008).

Regional financial cooperation efforts in East Asia have developed rapidly since the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-98, focused primarily on the ASEAN+3. Elements include liquidity provision (Chiang Mai Initiative), bond market development initiatives, better communications and surveillance, and a nascent discussion of currency cooperation. Surprisingly, these efforts have so far been broadly supportive of the global financial architecture and "global standards," despite their genesis as a reaction to perceived shortcomings in the US and IMF responses to the 1997-98 crisis. In this presentation, Professor Grimes will argue that the patterns we have seen to date can best be explained through a careful analysis of the power and interests of the three great powers in East Asian political economy: Japan, China, and the United States.

Sponsored by the UW Japan Studies Program and East Asia Center.