In this regard, Francis adds that, "The determining factor will be ASEAN's ability to provide the leadership necessary to create a strong, independent East Asian Union" (Francis, p. 77). In addition, Bowles (2002) notes that the ongoing efforts to create improved Asia/Pacific regional cooperation are fundamentally efforts intended to balance the influence of the United States on the region and the world in general. 4. What are the main hypotheses of the work?

The guiding hypotheses of the proposed study are as follows:

H1: Encouraging China to participate in as a coalition leader in an East Asian Union in the future would serve to ensure that the price it would have to pay in terms of loss of trade and investment if it acts against the interests of the union's other members would be prohibitively high.

H2: Former Cold War alliances will be replaced by new ones in the future that do not necessarily involve the former major actors such as the United States and Russia.

5. What methodology do you intend to use?

A review of the available research methodologies indicates that a mixed methodology consisting of a review of the relevant peer-reviewed and scholarly literature together with a series of case studies represents the best approach for the purposes of the proposed study. This approach is highly congruent with a number of social researchers who recommend incorporating as many relevant resources in a study as possible. For instance, Gratton and Jones (2003) note that a review of the literature is an essential task in almost all types of research projects today. "No matter how original you think the research question may be," they advise, "it is almost certain that your work will be building on the work of others. It is here that the review of such existing work is important. A literature review is the background to the research, where it is important to demonstrate a clear understanding of the relevant theories and concepts, the results of past research into the area, the types of methodologies and research designs employed...

51). According to Zikmund (2000), the case study method is "an exploratory research technique that intensively investigates one or a few situations similar to the researcher's problem situation" (p. 722). The primary advantage of this approach is that a subject area can be investigated in depth and with great attention to detail (Leedy, 1997). Taken together, the mixed methodology described above appears to represent the superior research approach.
6. What are your case studies, if any, and what are your case selection criteria?

The case studies to be used in the proposed study will concentrate on both military alliances such as the Warsaw Pact and NATO as well as economic alliances such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Asian Free Trade Area, the European Union, Association of Southeast Asian Nations and so forth to identify the salient characteristics of such military and economic alliances and their influence on global geopolitics. Selection criteria for the alliances to be considered in the proposed study will be those economic and military alliances that have existed since the end of World War II.