European experience for East Asian integration: ideas, national interests, and the international circumstance

This paper traces the possibility of East Asian integration through comparison with the early stage of European integration on three different levels: ideas, national interests, and international circumstance. Judging from the European experience, ideas always come first, then national interest contests, and eventually the international circumstance conditions the context. I compare the multilateral approach in Europe with the imperial hegemony competition in East Asia, Adenauer’s regionalization policy in Europe with the Yoshida line of Westernization detouring from Asia, and the US and Russia’s different roles in the two regions as external forces constraining the international order. My conclusion for the future of East Asia is located somewhere between views of procedural divergence and fundamental skepticism. I worry about integration for the sake of integration in which regional integration is presupposed as inherently good. Such discourse will easily be deteriorated and such a blind community simply collapses when circumstances change. For these reasons, there needs to be an adequate discussion regarding for what, by whom, and through which method integration is achieved.     

韩国在中美安全竞争间的选择

由于中国的崛起,东亚的地区秩序发生了巨大变化,目前正处于过渡阶段。在过渡期的地区秩序下,像韩国这样的中等国家面临严重问题,即随着中美大国竞争导致地区旧秩序削弱,韩国该如何应对这种局面。观察家们为中等国家指出了一系列策略选择:从制衡到追随,从防范到接触。有些观察家认为,中等国家将通过不同方式扮演稳定局面的角色,保持双重等级体系,因为中等国家有可能从大国僵持中获益。作者则认为,中等国家可以采用的策略选择很大程度上受制于大国竞争的背景。在大国竞争的背景下,中等国家在战略结盟时很难做出自己的选择,更多是被迫接受某种选择。作者使用基本议价理论作为工具,阐述该观点背后的逻辑支撑是:在影响过渡期地区秩序的相对稳定性方面,中等国家的作用很小;在调和各种选择的影响方面,中等国家也不如大国有决定作用。