Hanjin Lew
Recently, several arguments have emerged suggesting that Korea, Japan and China could peacefully coexist without the US’s presence in Northeast Asia.
Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs recently argued that China has never invaded Japan in its entire history – aside from two failed attempts – and characterized Japan’s incursions into China as anomalies.
Citing Harvard sociologist Ezra Vogel, he claimed the two Confucian civilizations enjoyed nearly 2,000 years of relative peace – a striking contrast, he noted, to the near-constant wars between Britain and France.
Yonsei University professor Jeffrey Robertson added that, as “US attention drifts away from East Asia, the unthinkable becomes thinkable” – a region where Europe, Russia, India, and China balance each other imperfectly, but none dominates.
Political scientist John Mearsheimer also weighed in: “If I were the national security adviser to Deng Xiaoping – or Xi Jinping – and they asked me what I thought about the US military presence in East Asia, I’d say, ‘I want the Americans out. I don’t want them in our backyard.’”
This vision of a self-balancing Asia – shared by economists, sociologists, strategists and realists alike – assumes that history, culture and trust can fill the vacuum left by American power. But can it?
Confucian peace myth
Sachs’s notion of a historical “Confucian peace” collapses under scrutiny. In his speech, he conveniently omits Korea – arguably the most Confucian state in East Asia – which has frequently been at war with both China and Japan.
No comments:
Post a Comment