Circles and cycles of cooperation

US probe: File photo of guided missile destroyer USS Lassen anchored at Tien Sa port in Vietnam’s central coastal city of Danang. The US Navy destroyer navigated early on Oct 27 within 12 nautical miles of artificial islands China is building in the South China Sea. – AFP

IN the theory of functional integration, the premise is that the benefit of cooperation would encourage deeper and wider working together which in the ultimate analysis will establish a community of common interest.

With evident and discernible benefit the propensity towards peaceful co-existence becomes greater than dysfunctional tendencies like conflict and war.