National Identity and Regional Identity: Perceptual Grounds for a Regional Community in Northeast Asia

[...]more importantly, it found that national identity has a negative impact on regional identity among these countries, which negates the compatibility hypothesis. In a similar vein, it is plausible that increases in transnational contact with neighboring countries, which raise more regional conflict issues, may highlight idiosyncrasies rather than the commonalities of other nations. [...]there is little support for the contention that frequent transnational interactions guarantee more opportunities for the development of positive perceptions toward neighboring countries and that they promote regional identity. Responses to each question about the respondents' trust in international organizations were summed to create a new variable of trust (0 = weak, 4 = strong). [...]trust was also expected to have a negative impact on regional identity. [...]this research showed that trust in international organizations has a negative impact on having a regional identity in both Northeast Asia and Southeast/Central Asia.