In the International Herald Tribune, Howard French looks at the prospects for a community of Northeast Asian nations:
The first thing that must be said about East Asia is that for all of its economic achievements, it lags woefully behind much of the rest of the world in important ways.
While the Europeans have found a way to discard their suspicions and hatreds and forge a growing community, this region is stuck with problems that date from World War II and the Korean conflict.
To be blunt, there is no community. Each of the major countries – China, Japan and South Korea – clings to its own vision of the future, to its own self-serving version of history, and relates to the outside world as a sole actor, and almost never in terms of regional interests or priorities.
It is against that uninspiring backdrop that one must view the sort of news this week about Japan and China coming to terms over exploitation of disputed offshore gas fields located in the East China Sea.
