Sample Chapter - United Nations University

26 Yoshinobu Yamamoto
efforts stem from the fact that a large number of bilateral FTAs have
been formed, resulting in the above mentioned spaghetti-like network,
and they belong to a phenomenon that could be called the fourth wave
of regional integration, encompassing multilateralization and widening
of that network. Against that backdrop, “ASEAN centrality” in the Asia-
Pacific and East Asian regions is gradually losing ground (Yamakage,
2010).
Finally, FTAs (whether bilateral or multilateral) have the potential to
strengthen regional cohesion, as discussed above, but they also have the
potential to weaken it. East Asian countries are working to conclude
FTAs with various countries and regions outside East Asia and even outside
the Asia-Pacific region, such as the EU (South Korea), the Gulf Cooperation
Council (Japan, among others) and India.
(3) ARF and competitive security: Limits of ARF
In the first half of the 1990s, a system for security dialogue across the
Asia-Pacific region was created in the form of ARF. The hub-and-spoke
network of alliances centred on the United States, however, remained,
resulting in a two-tiered Asia-Pacific security paradigm. The first North
Korean nuclear crises arrived in 1993 and 1994 and then, in 1996, leading
up to the presidential election in Taiwan, China carried out a series of
missile tests to try to intimidate Taiwan, and the United States responded
by dispatching two aircraft carriers. Then in 1998, North Korea carried
out a missile launch test. In response to these incidents, it was the system
of alliances centred on the United States that demonstrated its effectiveness,
not ARF (elements of level II in Table 1.1 – a competitive regional
complex – are still much in evidence in the Asia-Pacific region). ARF
pursued confidence-building as well as preventative diplomacy and
peaceful conflict resolution, but it had difficulty producing effective results.
25 East Asia still embraced a regional security complex as its part,
with deterrence and balance of power playing major roles, while values,
norms and domestic institutions were still not mutually consistent. This
contrasts with the economic sector, in which there was substantive, mutually
beneficial interaction, and the values and norms of a free economy
had gradually become widespread.
(4) The rise of China (the 2000s)
(i) 9/11
The 9/11 terrorist attacks came in 2001, and the United States called for
the cooperation of various major powers and other countries for a “War
on Terror”, to which major powers responded. In his 2002 National Security
Strategy, President Bush called the juncture the most significant