When the leaders of China, Japan and Korea met last weekend and declared their commitment to greater regional integration and a free-trade pact, news reports around the region heralded a new era of Asian cooperation. But the history of other such efforts shows that they are usually built more on hopes than reality, particularly because they try to downplay the key role of the United States in East Asian security.
Grand plans for creating an Asian community of some sort multiply by the year, and in some ways this shows how much East Asia has changed for the better: Consider that for nearly half a century after World War II, East Asia seemed frozen in time, divided into political and military blocs, riven by ideology, and as far as possible from thinking of itself as an integrated region. But reality almost always dashes expectations for today's integration efforts.
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