An Analysis Of The US Factor In The Process Of Regional Cooperation In East Asia

Regional integration has become one of the two major trends in the world since 1990 s,which is also evident in East Asia,for example,Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Mahathir proposed the establishment of East Asian economic group proposal in December 1990,which is the sign of East Asian countries started brewing on East Asian regional cooperation.However, regional cooperation in East Asia didn’t start really until the end of December 1997,when the first 9 plus 3 meeting was held.East Asian regional cooperation’s relative late starting is closely related to the opposition of the United States,which is in sharp contrast with the United States’ relatively large support for European integration, this is thought-provoking.What are the United States’ attitudes towards East Asian regional cooperation?What are the reasons,methods,effects and prospects of the United States’ intervention in East Asian regional cooperation?In the first chapter,this paper has a brief introduction to the development of East Asian regional cooperation from its three stages of brewing and formation of consensus,start-up and expansion and coexistence of setbacks and progress.This paper argues that the United States’ attitudes towards East Asian regional cooperation have a three periodical evolution since East Asian countries started brewing on East Asian regional cooperation in December 1990:from “nip the initiatives of East Asian regional cooperation in the bud directly” to “didn’t pay enough attention to”,and then to “intent to make regional cooperation in Asia Pacific incorporate East Asian regional cooperation”,which is bounded by the first 9 plus 3 meeting in December 1997 and the Obama administration came to power in January 2009.In the next three chapters, this paper will analyze the United States’ attitudes towards East Asian regional cooperation in different stages successively. In the second chapter, this paper focuses on analyzing the United States’ attitudes and policies of opposing to East Asian Economic Group,East Asian Economic Tribune and Asian Monetary Fund. In the third chapter, this paper analyzes the United States’ “didn’t pay enough attention to” attitude and its reasons from two aspects of the Clinton administration took a “walk and look” attitude in the later stage and anti terrorism war transferred the George W. Bush government’s attention. In the fourth chapter, this paper analyzes the United States’ attitude and of intending to make regional cooperation in Asia Pacific incorporate East Asian regional cooperation from two aspects of the US promoted and signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and strengthens relations with Japan and other East Asian countries,interfered with East Asian regional cooperation.In short,the US factor is still only the external cause of East Asian regional cooperation, the common understanding and actions of East Asian countries to work together to promote regional cooperation in East Asia has a fundamental impact on East Asian regional cooperation,which is the internal cause.As long as East Asian countries continue to work together to promote it,East Asian regional cooperation will make new progress continuously.