Northeast Asia on the Brink

TOKYO – China’s refusal to attend this year’s summit with Japan and South Korea as scheduled comes at a trying moment for all three countries. Although Asia is the world’s most dynamic region, it has a paucity of institutional mechanisms for resolving – or at least mitigating – international disputes of the type that are ratcheting up tension across the region. Because the now-annual trilateral summits offer real hope for creating an institutionalized dialogue among Northeast Asia’s “Big Three,” China’s unwillingness to participate this year does not bode well.