The purpose of this blog is to invite discussion and debate about the best ways to encourage reconciliation among the countries of Northeast Asia and how to build new, multilateral institutions in the region to enhance peace and strategic stability. The basic assumption of the project is that it will be difficult if not impossible to establish viable, security institutions without the resolution of historical and contemporary differences among the states involved.
To date, we have convened four international workshops: the first, on “Reconciliation between China and Japan,” held at the ANU in August 2006; the second, on “Security Cooperation in Northeast Asia,” held at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul in April 2008; a third on “Comparing Strategies of Reconciliation,” in October 2009, was held at National Chung Hsing University and National Taiwan University in Taiwan; and the fourth on “Nuclear Weapons and the Security of Korea and East Asia,” in May 2010, was held at the University of Oregon and Portland State University in the US. Papers from the first two workshops have been published in special issues of the journal Asian Perspective (31:1, 2007, and 32:4, 2008), available online; and papers from the third workshop are published in Asian Perspective 34:4, 2010.
Our objective is to produce concrete and realistic policy proposals for peacebuilding in Northeast Asia. Working with colleagues from China, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the United States, we want, for example, to help make a success of the Six Party Talks on the DPRK nuclear programs, and to provide useful ideas for a potential East Asian Community. A future workshop will bring together colleagues from around the region to share proposals for designing a new, multilateral security institution for NE Asia based on the six-party foundation.
Mel Gurtov
Richard Tanter
Peter Van Ness – Coordinator