The impact of economic dynamism upon international conflict behavior: A Granger causality test for some East Asian countries

In an attempt to rigorously explore the international implications of East Asian economic dynamism, a critical issue in contemporary East Asia, this dissertation examines and evaluates the relationships between the key attributes of economic dynamism, or trade and economic development, and the patterns of international conflicts among some East Asian countries using theoretical and empirical evidence.;Based upon the main findings of this research, East Asian economic dynamism generally turns out to have some propitious implications for regional relations. Rapid economic progress appears conducive to enhanced interstate cooperation among regional countries through its functional mechanism like democratization. Also, regional economic ties caused by expanding intra-regional trade tend to move the East Asian countries in such "complex interdependent" situations toward an easing of tense relations with other countries.;Nonetheless, this study also suggests that some caution should be taken with a sanguine view of regional economic dynamism. Rapid economic advance may not lead to cultivating more harmonious relations with other core countries. The magnitude of economic interactions does not appear to be a necessary condition for the improvement of relations between trading states. Without much regard to the function of a regional interaction elasticity, or the intensity of the gains from trade with regional economies relative to the gains from trade with the extra-regional economies, the merely expanding regional trade may not realize such a positive influence on interstate cooperation among major regional traders.;Thus, despite increased intra-regional trade, which appears conducive to extending the economic interdependence among regional countries, this study suggests that the structure of intra-regional trade be adjusted continuously or accommodated among major economic partners lest a regional interaction elasticity, or the intensity of regional economic benefits from intra-regional trade relative to those from the global trade, be marginalized by a few inordinate economies.;First, the dissertation discusses the changing trends in East Asia in order to provide a historical background of the empirical analysis which follows. Second, the dissertation brings into account some relevant works and articulates a theoretical linkage between economic factors and an international conflict pattern. Third, because the question of the causality between the economic and conflict variables continues to obscure analytical enlightenment, this study tests major hypotheses in monadic and dyadic terms by employing the Granger causality test, which is designed to explore and verify various causal possibilities between time-series variables.