Oh dear, I didn't mean to accuse Sam of Kumbaya-ism, but only to defend myself from that grave charge. One reason many people have doubts about the Concert model for Asia's future order is that it seems to presuppose the prior existence of precisely what it is supposed to establish – stable and trusting relations between the major powers. I thought that was the criticism Sam and Raoul were both advancing in their different ways.
Hence my eagerness to say that, on the contrary, a Concert as I conceive it would work in impeccably realist terms based only on the cold calculation of self-interest by the parties, requiring no more to start the process than a cautious willingness to give it a try, and a clear understanding of how much worse the alternatives would be for each of them.
But now I see that Sam thinks my vision is too Realist. He argues that, to build a Concert, we would require more than enlightened mutual self-interest among the great powers. We need something of the sense of community, embodied in institutions, which conservatives like Scruton and Burke believe are at the heart of domestic political life. We therefore need to build a concert on the foundations of the region's current institutions.
Well, this is a big subject and Sam's points are very important. However, to stop this post getting out of control I'll make just two brief points.
First, a broad point about the difference between national and international politics. Sam's argument relies on the idea that they work the same way, or should work the same way. In this he is following a great tradition of liberal internationalism, but not one I think good conservatives like Burke would have signed up to (Sam may well correct me on this – he knows his Burke much better than I do).
To me, the whole difference between national and international politics is that in the international space we do not have a sense of community embodied in institutions. We have armed forces instead. So I have my doubts about this as an application of conservative political theory to international politics. Once the kinds of institutions that make national politics work spring up between states, they cease to function as separate states and become one community. See under 'Europe'.
Second, on Asia's institutions specifically: if Sam is right and a Concert would require domestic-style institutions to make it work, we will not get a concert in Asia. The regional institutions we have – ARF, APEC, EAS etc – are far too weak. To me they carry little or nothing of what Sam calls 'that sense of authority and allegiance' which makes domestic institutions work. We are not Europe.
Photo by Flickr user Changhua Coast Conservation Action, used under a Creative Commons license.
