An East Asian community : Focusing on Political and Security Problems

P(論文)In the East Asian region de facto economic integration has been increasingly progressing since the nineties. Against this backdrop the possibility of forming an institutional framework for this "natural economic zone" has been deliberated to further promote the mutual interdependence of trade, investment and other economic relations. In December 2005 the leaders of ASEAN+3 (Japan, Korea and China)+India, Australia and New Zealand gathered in Malaysia to explore the possibility of giving birth to an "East Asian community". In order to get a clue as to whether East Asia would and could establish eventually a kind of "pluralistic comprehensive security community" beyond an economic community, the following political and security problems should be examined. Firstly, whether differences of stances and policies in the political and security issues could pose a hindrance to this kind of undertaking, and, if yes, to what extent? Secondly, whether the deepening and widening of economic integration could lead to integration in the political and security sphere? Thirdly, what should be done to form eventually a political and security community in this region? Whatever the answers to these questions may be, the past 2 Malaysian Summits in December 2005 marked a milestone in the direction of the emerging regionalism suitable for East Asia.departmental bulletin pape