The Imagined Community of East Asia?

The proposed East Asian Community is an imagined community. To describe it this way is not to dismiss it as an illusion, or to deny its potential for transforming East Asia's future. The usage of the term 'imagined' is meant to emphasize the bold aspirations that underlie the notion, aspirations which seek to transcend powerful physical, political and even cultural barriers confronting them. Many great transformations in history start with a vision, which is essentially an imagined outcome. Some acts of imagination carry a strong dose of wishful thinking that remains unfulfilled. The East Asian Community could turn out to be just that. But some imaginations can and do find their cherished outcome. The East Asian Community idea could usher in a genuine sense of regional community, backed by collective action to address the region's common problems. As an idea or a vision, the East Asian Community is hardly absurd or wishful thinking. The key to success or failure lies not in its imaginary beginning, but in the process of translating it into reality. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]