Toward Building a Security Community in East Asia: Impediments to and Possibilities for South Korea-China-JapanTrilateral Security Cooperation

Abstract

Despite the high-level economic interdependence and cultural exchange among major regional actors, the current security environment of Northeast Asia is rather volatile. The tension surrounding North Korean military aggression, the Taiwan Strait, and the East/South China Sea indicates the necessity of a security mechanism that restrains the aggressive actions of the regional actors involved. One viable option is to build a security community within which member states share an expectation of settling their differences through peaceful means. Based on an examination of the current state of security cooperation among South Korea, China, and Japan, this paper argues that the main impediment to a sustainable regional security community has been identity conflict caused by the history disputes among the three countries, not the lack of institutional settings or U.S. support. Shared identity and the concomitant mutual trust are prerequisites for genuine security cooperation. Therefore, this paper suggests the reconciliation process between South Korea and Japan as the initial step toward building an East Asian security community, paying attention to its implications for South Korea-China-Japan reconciliation.