In a world of continuing financial volatility, this book critically evaluates the oft-cited claim that US firms and the US government attempt to open emerging markets in economic distress and acquire valuable industrial and financial assets.

Focusing particularly on Korea and Thailand, the author examines the degree of market opening, the roles US actors played in this process and the level of foreign firm activity in the years after the Asian crisis. Justin Robertson finds surprisingly little coherence between the strategies of US firms and US policy-makers. At the same time, the...