East Asian Community Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

East Asian Community - Essay Example During the ASEAN summit held in Tokyo, Japan, the member nations of the ASEAN made an official proclamation declaring East Asian Community to be a major goal of ASEAN nations including China, Japan, and Korea. And on December 2005, the first East Asian summit will be held in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. The EAC will comprise China, Japan, Korea, ASEAN nations, additionally India, Australia and New Zealand are also invited to join. The agenda for the first East Asian Summit have to establish yet, so far the parties involved have limited themselves to hoping that EAS will create the basis for an East Asian Community based on "common values" and a "common identity." However, they have yet to define exactly what values and identity they have in mind. Such an approach does not give much reason to believe that East Asia is on the brink of some radical new master plan (Berkofsky 2005). But how will the emergence of East Asian Community mean to U.S. interest in the region How will it affect the U.S.-Asian relationship Is this an anti-American movement The Issues and Insights vol. 5 no.9 "The Emerging East Asian Community: Should Washington be concerned" by Ralph Cossa, Simon Ta, and Lee Chung-min discusses key issues relating to the emerging East Asian Community. Ralph Cossa wrote in the first chapter his argument from an American perspective. He believed that it is still too early to measure U.S. attitude towards East Asian Community since it is not yet properly defined. Even governance within the Asian communities has barely evolved. It is not even clear what East Asia is composed of. Cossa also believes that East Asian Community will have a long way to go, considering the Asian track record in APEC, ASEAN plus 3, and ARF. The ASEAN since 1967, historically been reluctant to delve into security maters, even among its own members, much less with it's extended dialogue partners. The U.S. sees ARF as ineffective also, Taiwan has not been permitted to join and China insertion that internal affairs is not to be an agenda despite their obvious regional implication. The Asian avoidance of internal affair issues also placed some important topics off limits. However, APEC provided the U.S. a good venue for promotion of free trade and fight for terr orism, but ARF remains inserted to talk rather than actually helping. U.S. attitude will depend on how EAC will evolve and how it will interact with Washington. The U.S. will welcome a pro-active ASEAN that emphasize on security cooperation and joint approaches to security challenges. Washington is also wary of China to gain control in shaping the agenda, the role which is played by ASEAN today. Another issue is whether EAC will support or supplement advance broader dialogue or will it used as excused for inaction and any effort to diminish U.S. influence in the region. Will EAC reinforce or dilute counter-terrorism and counter-proliferation is another agenda for the Washington. Moreover, U.S. is interested in the EAC criteria for membership, mission, objectives, and priorities. Cossa also assert that it will be difficult for China, Japan and Korea to sit on one table and no one is sure what to do with North Korea.Simon Tay's argument on the other hand, analyzes the matter from an A sian point of view. His main assertion is that the regionalism sentiment in East Asia is neither an Anit-American movement nor a move to