An excellent, 'must read' article in The Telegraph by the former British ambassador to North Korea, John Everard, who describes the complexities in East Asia and, worringly, the lack of any sort of international tribunal to referee the multi-faceted disputes that are building up. His penultimate paragraph echoes my own thoughts expressed in my previous post:
The situation in East Asia in 2014 is uncomfortably similar to that of Europe in 1914. A rising power, then Germany, now China, resentful of past humiliations and looking for a place in the sun, seeks to change the status quo by asserting itself. Established powers (France, Japan) seek to maintain their position and fear what a world dominated by the rising power might do to them, while the superpower (UK, US) hopes that matters can be resolved without its direct intervention.
And we all know how the original dispute ended!
