Herzog on Yeo, 'Asia's Regional Architecture: Alliances and Institutions in the Pacific Century'

Author: Andrew Yeo

Reviewer: Stephen Herzog

Andrew Yeo. Asia's Regional Architecture: Alliances and Institutions in the Pacific Century. Studies in Asian Security Series. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2019. 264 pp. $70.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-5036-0844-3.

Reviewed by Stephen Herzog (Yale University) Published on H-Diplo (October, 2019) Commissioned by Seth Offenbach (Bronx Community College, The City University of New York)

Bilateralism, Multilateralism, and Path Dependence in Asia?

Despite his open dislike of foreign travel and abandonment of Barack Obama's "pivot" rhetoric, Donald J. Trump has found himself in the Asia-Pacific region several times. The forty-fifth US president has visited China, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, and South Korea while even becoming the first American head of state to enter North Korea during a cinematic photo-op with its supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, at the demilitarized zone. Conducting bilateral diplomacy with long-standing US allies, nascent partners, and rivals has not been the only task. Trump also participated in the multilateral Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summits. Meanwhile, administration officials have been involved in track-I diplomacy like the Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD) and track-1.5 initiatives like the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC).

For all but the most dedicated policy practitioners and observers, keeping tabs on the dizzying array of overlapping institutions in Asia presents a formidable challenge. Fortunately, Andrew Yeo has published a thorough and comprehensible compendium that explains the evolution of this web of multilateral—and sometimes trilateral—institutions....