Toward a More Amicable Asia-Pacific Region

Book excerpt: The Asia-Pacific region has been enjoying fast growing economy. As President Barack Obama’s “pivot to Asia” strategy indicates, this region is an engine for the world economic growth. However, the Asia-Pacific has also been an unstable region suffering from many sources of conflicts such as disputes on Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, the unsettled Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) borders, and many others. Do we need a hegemonic power to stabilize this region? What can we do to deal with the emergence of China? How can we understand anti-Japanese feelings? Is there any way to deal with the problem on Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands? How can we analyze nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula? Can the European Union make any contribution to stabilizing the Asia-Pacific region? Those are some of the concrete questions this book tackles with in order to find ways and means to establish a more amicable Asia-Pacific region.