Post‐cold war security in East Asia

Abstract

As one of the two primary regions of East-West competition throughout the cold war, the winds of strategic change now sweeping through the Asia-Pacific region are nothing short of extraordinary. The international balance of power has shifted from one of strategic bipolarity dominated by superpower competition to a more diffuse and complex multipolarity. President Bush has recognized this geopolitical transformation with his call for a ‘new international order’. Yet little consensus has been reached thus far on what specific policies will need to be incorporated to achieve this vision. Western and Asian policy planners need to focus on how a more stable and enduring regional security order can be structured. Locally, ethnic strife, succession crises and insurgency movements must be addressed and mitigated. Regionally, hegemonic competition in power vacuums created by superpower retrenchment must be minimized while resource and sea lane access are preserved. Globally, Asia-Pacific national sovereignties and Asia-Pacific economic growth in an increasingly interdependent world must be maintained.