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November 15, 2005

Toward a Principled Integration of East Asia:
Concept of an East Asian Community (3)By YAMADA Takio
Politics and Security
From the political and security perspective, East Asia today has not achieved a level ofcommonality comparable to that of Western Europe in the 1950s. Those nations at that time allembraced the political principles of liberal democracy, and had a collective security system inNATO. In present-day East Asia, there is nothing yet that can be called a common set of politicalprinciples. Many countries have problems in governance, and much greater efforts are neededfor democratization, to strengthen the rule of law, protect human rights, prevent corruption, andimprove administrative efficiency. These problematic political conditions stand in stark contrast
to the thriving East Asian economies.
There have been certain signs of progress recently, however. Over the past two years democraticelections have been held in several ASEAN countries, and in some of them leaders werereplaced. This would have been unimaginable only ten years ago. Prominent references todemocracy and other universal values have been incorporated in documents issued at recent
regional summit meetings, such as the Asia–Africa Summit Declaration issued in April 2005, theDeclaration of ASEAN Concord II in October 2003, and the Japan–ASEAN Tokyo Declarationin December 2003.
East Asia’s emerging new middle class, moreover, is the globalization generation, and when theycome of age as leaders in their societies, those universal values will become much more deeplyrooted there. We should encourage this kind of forward-looking transformation and strive tocreate conditions where universal values like democracy are respected and can flourish
throughout the entire region.
Many argue that one reason European integration took place so rapidly after the second world
war was the establishment of NATO, backed by the huge military power of the United States.
The presence of NATO helped to create a strategic environment that acted to deter conflict
between major European countries, notably France and Germany. That environment of security1was an essential factor in the success of regional integration.
East Asia’s security foundation, in contrast, is fragile and is a significant problem for the region.
First, there is no collective regional security system comparable to NATO. Given the diversity ofnational security policies, it is not likely that a NATO-like system will be established in East
Asia in the near future. The American military presence in Asia, contingent upon the Japan–U.S.
security arrangements, and collaboration and cooperation among the countries concerned will
most likely continue to serve as the basis for regional peace and security for the foreseeable
future.
Under such circumstances, a major security-related issue for East Asia is to ensure greatertransparency regarding the defense policies and military capabilities of the separate nations andto emphasize confidence-building measures. The U.S. Defense Department’s annual report toCongress on China’s military strength issued in July 2005 caused a stir worldwide. Views andassessments of the report vary, but it aroused considerable concern. Some people have expressed
worry that countries in the region cannot get sufficient information either on military buildup
operations by regional powers or on the defense strategies they are formulating that guide theirmilitary preparations. This situation must be improved; unless we do, we cannot promote mutual
trust and confidence among the region’s countries, and a regional community cannot be built
without trust and confidence in each other.
Although I do not go into these points at length here, when analyzing the present political andsecurity situation in East Asia, two more important factors should be considered: (i) the recent
rise of nationalism in Northeast Asian nations, and (ii) the impact of the economic emergence ofChina and India on the power balance in the region and the world as a whole.
In sum, East Asia faces an array of political and security issues. For the sake of future
generations, it is incumbent upon us to continue our steadfast cooperative efforts to overcome,one by one, these political and security issues in order to ensure a more stable and prosperous
region.
Principled Integration
The current situation in East Asia is, then, a complex mixture of positive elements, particularlyin the economic and sociocultural realms, and negative elements, mainly in the political andsecurity realms, but the region is moving ahead and is on the verge of creating a newenvironment for itself. It is no easy task to foresee in what direction such historicaltransformations could lead. As I stated in the introduction, East Asia now stands at a historicalcrossroads. At this juncture, it is more important than ever that countries in the region continue
their collaborative efforts to move the region toward strength and solidarity in the future,2

promoting the positive elements of changes currently underway, while mitigating the negative
ones.
In my view, the most valuable role a “concept of an East Asian community” could play would be
to motivate people and be a central vision or idea to give structure and direction to the joint
efforts of the region’s countries. The actual creation of an East Asian community willundoubtedly take considerable time. What is important now is to share the common goal ofbuilding a regional community in the future and to facilitate the process of mobilizing andconsolidating collaborative efforts to that end. Such a process will help the countries in theregion reconcile diverging interests and policy that irritate relations among them.
Let me stress, furthermore, that in pushing joint efforts, East Asian leaders must establish validand sound principles and methods for integration, and make them clear and evident to allconcerned. The region today is a delicate and complex mixture of challenges and opportunities.
Promoting integration without principles would, in such an environment, probably stir up more
apprehension than hope. The region’s leaders need to be aware that the international community
is giving its most focused attention to East Asia. What the region is trying to achieve and underwhat principles it is trying to do so must be made evident. East Asia must present in very clear
terms what I am calling its “principled integration”—that is the task with which the region isnow faced.
(This is the text of an article by Mr. YAMADA Takio, Director of Regional Policy Division,
Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which originallyappeared in the Fall 2005 issue of the English edition of “GAIKO FORUM.”)3