Abstract
A comparison of regional integration processes and effective multilateralism in Europe and Asia has been a familiar and popular, but somewhat daunting, task for historians, economists and political scientists alike. A fresh reflection on the impact of war memories and post-war responsibilities and reconciliation on regional integration within a larger study on effective multilateralism in East Asia requires careful positioning from the outset. The sub-themes of this rich agenda constitute challenging subjects in themselves. The various contested concepts, i.e. war memory, reconciliation, trust and multilateralism, each deserve full treatment in their own right and have been studied in depth earlier. Going a step further and combining all of them in a short chapter means engaging in an impossible art. Nevertheless, the chapter’s main contribution is to examine what might hold these themes and threads together. It asks to what extent effective multilateralism and governance through formal institutions require a deeper layer of mutual trust built by shared identity, historical legacy, responsible leadership and mutual respect, both between leaders and societies. As the chapter stretches so widely, readers must tolerate a somewhat general, but hopefully fruitful, treatment of much deeper, overlapping debates.
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