Security, Arms Control and Defence Restructuring in East Asia

This text examines arms control and defence restructuring in East Asia. It explores Western misconceptions of Asia and provides a survey of security and defence political trends in "Asia". Asia has been the subject of heated debates in the west, and among the disputed issues are: whether the west is heading for a confrontation with "the rest", ie an alliance between the confucian and Islamic civilizations - a clash of civilizations; does the lack of international organizations in Asia imply that the region is a "raw" international anarchy, or are there "functional substitutes" at work; are Asian notions fundamentally bellicose, or at least more inclined to use force than the west; should the west be concerned with the apparent arms build-up in parts of Asia; and if so, is the appropriate western response a compensatory build-up of arms, accompanied by the adoption of "counter-proliferation" strategies? The author disputes these myths and offers an individual examination of the countries that make up East Asia.