Rethinking Security In East Asia

Is East Asia heading towards war? This text makes a case for a new theoretical approach (called 'analytical eclecticism' by the authors) to the study of Asian security.

Since the unexpected end of the Cold War, standard arguments about power politics can no longer be adopted uncritically. This has led to a renewed interest in Japan’s unusually peaceful security policy. Japan’s championing of "comprehensive security" is central to this collection. Peter J. Katzenstein’s essays explore this concept which not only encompasses traditional military concerns but also domestic aspects of security. The book's focus on counter-terrorism and national security highlights a policy approach which, over decades, Japan has developed with political patience and diplomatic finesse. These essays advocate an eclectic approach that helps in recognizing new questions and that seek to combine elements from different analytical perspectives in the exploration of novel lines of argument. Additionally, the book features an entirely new, substantial introduction that explores and elaborates the themes of the collection while bringing it up to date. This collection will be of significant interest to students and scholars of Japanese politics, security studies and international relations.

How can the United States craft a sustainable national security strategy in a world of shifting threats, sharp resource constraints, and a changing balance of power? This volume brings together research on this question from political science, history, and political economy, aiming to inform both future scholarship and strategic decision-making.

In this book, leading experts from seven countries-- Japan, Russia, China, the United States, South Korea, Taiwan, and Malaysia-- assess security concerns over East Asian energy imports, particularly from the Middle East.

During the past half century, U.S. policy in East Asia was guided by a simple dictum: avoid the domination of East Asia by any power other than the United States. Increasingly, however, this policy approach seems questionable in a globalizing world, a massively changed East Asia, and a much deeper U.S. economic involvement in the region. Even as East Asian leaders often tell Americans they want a continued U.S. presence for security purposes, they also fear an American effort to "contain" China that will put them between a rising regional power and the global superpower, creating dangerous tensions that ultimately would threaten the region's golden goose —China's powerful economic growth engine. Others, like some Japanese, would welcome a conclusion by the United States that a powerful China ultimately threatens American interests.The Post-American Century in East Asia addresses major policy problems of East Asia —from the management of our relations with China to the North Korean nuclear problem to the growth of East Asian regionalism. The book answers how, in light of East Asia's growing power and influence, the United States can retain influence commensurate with its interests. The transformation of the region requires us to ask whether some longstanding perspectives are still relevant, as well as what changes are needed in American policy.

A Rising China and Security in East Asia provides a systematic and in-depth analysis of the security discourse of Chinese elites on the major powers in East Asia, namely the US, Japan and Russia, and how China perceives their global security strategy.

David C. Kang tells an often overlooked story about East Asia's 'comprehensive security', arguing that American policy towards Asia should be based on economic and diplomatic initiatives rather than military strength.

Despite the end of the Cold War, security continues to be a critical concern of Asian states. Allocations of state revenues to the security sector continue to be substantial and have, in fact, increased in several countries. As Asian nations construct a new security architecture for the Asia-Pacific region, Asian security has received increased attention by the scholarly community. But most of that scholarship has focused on specific issues or selected countries. This book aims to lay the groundwork for a comprehensive, in-depth understanding of Asian security by investigating conceptions of security in sixteen Asian countries. The book undertakes an ethnographic, country-by-country study of how Asian states conceive of their security. For each country, it identifies and explains the security concerns and behavior of central decision makers, asking who or what is to be protected, against what potential threats, and how security policies have changed over time. This inside-out or bottom-up approach facilitates both identification of similarities and differences in the security thinking and practice of Asian countries and exploration of their consequences. The crucial insights into the dynamics of international security in the region provided by this approach can form the basis for further inquiry, including debates about the future of the region. The book is in three parts. Part I critically reviews and appraises the debate over defining security and provides a historical overview of international politics in Asia. Part II investigates security practices in sixteen Asian countries, the countries selected and grouped on the basis of security independence. Based on the findings of the country studies and drawing on other published works, Part III compares the national practices with a view to identifying and explaining key characteristics of Asian security practice and conceptualization on the basis of the Asian experiences.

This book takes up a wide variety of human security challenges beyond the dimension of human conflict, and looks at both natural and human disasters that the East Asian region faces or is attempting to resolve. While discussing various human security issues, the case studies offer practical lessons to address serious human security challenges in the framework of the ASEAN Plus Three and beyond. Against the backdrop of multifaceted globalization and parochial reactions thereto, this book is a powerful contribution to universal human security.

This title was first published in 2002. Policy-makers in South Asia, the Middle East and the Asian Pacific, decision-makers in the OECD countries, organizations and specialists in academe, will all find this publication indispensable. It presents an integrated model of national security that emphasizes military and non-military determinants. In the light of this model, it analyzes Pakistan’s defence policies over the last half-century and proposes a radical reform of Pakistan’s military organization. In addition to offering a comprehensive look at national security, this book provides coherent, interrelated analysis of the key issues such as political leadership, social and economic development and foreign policy.