Summary
The navies of China, India and to a lesser extent Japan are expanding rapidly at present. This has the potential to alter the US-dominated naval balance in Asia-Pacific but it also raises a question: are the region’s powers involved in a naval arms race?
Naval development is and always has been a crucial indicator of economic and political development. It shows the emergence of a significant shift in strategic weight from West to East. But within the Asia-Pacific Region, alongside growing economic and institutional integration, there are geo-political tensions that threaten the regions stability and peace. The balance between the two determines the form that naval development in that region is taking. Some aspects of this suggest the beginnings of a naval arms race that would have profound consequences for the region and the world.
Country or Region: United States
Till, Geoffrey
Summary
The rise of the Chinese and other Asian navies, worsening quarrels over maritime jurisdiction and the United States’ maritime pivot towards the Asia-Pacific region reminds us that the sea has always been central to human development as a source of resources, and as a means of transportation, information-exchange and strategic dominion. It has provided the basis for mankind’s prosperity and security, and this is even more true in the early 21st century, with the emergence of an increasingly globalized world trading system. Navies have always provided a way of policing, and sometimes exploiting, the system. In contemporary conditions, navies, and other forms of maritime power, are having to adapt, in order to exert the maximum power ashore in the company of others and to expand the range of their interests, activities and responsibilities. While these new tasks are developing fast, traditional ones still predominate. Deterrence remains the first duty of today’s navies, backed up by the need to ‘fight and win’ if necessary. How navies and their states balance these two imperatives will tell us a great deal about our future in this increasingly maritime century. This book investigates the consequences of all this for the developing nature, composition and functions of all the world’s significant navies, and provides a guide for anyone interested in the changing and crucial role of seapower in the 21st century.
Seapower is essential reading for all students of naval power, maritime security and naval history, and highly recommended for students of strategic studies, international security and International Relations.
Prabhakar, Lawrence W., Joshua Ho, and W. S. G. Bateman
Summary
The Asia-Pacific region has emerged as the hub of global geo-political, geo-economic and geo-strategic significance in the post-Cold War period. The rise of China and the resurgence of India will be the hallmark for the next 50 years. How this surge in power is accommodated by the incumbent powers like the United States and Japan, and how the new regional powers like China and India manage the power politics that emerge will be the key determinants of regional stability. This volume examines the national maritime doctrines as well as the nuclear weapons developments at sea of the four major powers in the Asia-Pacific, namely, China, India, Japan and the United States, to see if the evolving dynamic is a cooperative or a competitive one. In particular, the volume looks at the evolving paradigms of maritime transformation in strategy and technology; the emergent new maritime doctrines and evolving force postures in the naval orders of battle; the role and operations of nuclear navies in the Asia-Pacific; and the implications and impact of nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles and sea-based missile defence responses in the region.
Simon, Sheldon W., and Evelyn Goh ed
Summary
China’s emergence as a great power is a global concern that can potentially alter the structure of world politics. Its rise is multidimensional, affecting the political, security, and economic affairs of all states that comprise the world’s fastest developing region of the Asia-Pacific.
Most of the recently published studies on China’s rise have focused on its relations with its immediate neighbours in Northeast Asia: Japan, the Koreas, Taiwan, and Russia. Less attention has been given to Southeast Asia’s relations with China. To address these issues, this volume, with its wide range of perspectives, will make a valuable contribution to the ongoing policy and academic dialogue on a rising China. It examines a range of perspectives on the nature of China’s rise and its implications for Southeast Asian states as well as US interests in the region.
China, the United States and South-East Asia will be of great interest to students of Chinese politics, South-East Asian politics, regional security and international relations in general.
Ikenberry, G. John, and Takashi Inoguchi ed
Summary
This book explores the ways that institutions play a role–or fail to–in Japanese and American approaches to regional governance in East Asia. It uses recent studies on the logic and dynamics of institutions to determine the logic of order within the East Asia region. The central focus is on bilateral and multilateral regional institutions, how Japan and the U.S. use these institutions, and what we can learn about the future direction of institutions of governance within the East Asia region.
Suh, Jae-Jung
Summary
This book looks at U.S.-Korea relations and argues that the durability of military alliances depends upon a combination of power distribution, material assets, and identities. The author asserts that military alliances, beyond being mere tools of power balancing, are also engaged in material, representational, and institutional practices that constitute the identity of allies and adversaries.
Hao, Yufan Haoand Lin Su ed
Summary
Various domestic factors impact upon China’s foreign policy making, such as bureaucracy, academics, media and public opinion. This stimulating book examines their increasing influence and focuses in particular on China’s policy towards the United States, exploring whether there has been an emergence of societal factors, independent of the Communist Party, that have begun to exert influence over the policy process. It also debates questions such as how it will affect the ability of the Chinese government to frame and implement its policy towards the US, and whether it has generated institutional arrangements in China for cooperation on issues such as trade, human rights and Taiwan. The book provides a better understanding of the role of societal forces in China’s foreign policy making process.
Raja Mohan, C
Abstract
South Asia is at the cusp of a historic transformation. If the Bush administration can sustain the level of involvement it has demonstrated since September 11, the prospect of reordering both the subcontinent’s interstate relations and its intrastate dynamics is real.
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Sutter, Robert
Abstract
American preoccupation with the global economic recession and conflicts in Southwest Asia and the Middle East indicated that US relations with the rest of the Asia-Pacific region were likely to be of generally secondary importance at the start of the Obama administration. In Asia, the economic crisis put a premium on close US collaboration with the major economies, China and Japan, and on avoiding egregiously self-serving economic practices that could prompt protectionism and curb world growth. Apart from the Middle East-Southwest Asian region, the other major area of US security concern in Asia was North Korea. North Korea’s escalating provocations created a major international crisis in 2009 that forced the Obama government to change priorities and give top-level attention to dealing with Pyongyang. The provocations included a long range ballistic missile test, a nuclear weapons test (North Korea’s second), withdrawal from the Six-Party Talks and resumption of nuclear weapons development. Longstanding US concern with the security situation in the Taiwan Straits declined as President Ma Yingjeou reversed the pro-independence agenda of his predecessor and reassured China. The Obama government seemed poised to build on and make a few needed adjustments to Bush administration policies towards regional allies and emerging powers, China and India. Early indicators suggest that enhanced US activism and flexibility in Southeast Asia may represent a significant change in US policy in Asia under an Obama administration that otherwise seems generally inclined to adhere fairly closely to pragmatic and constructive US approaches to key Asia issues in recent years.
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Friedberg, Aaron L
Summary
“Sober and well-informed. . . . A careful and compelling examination of the U.S.-Chinese relationship from a number of angles.”—Financial Times
There may be no denying China’s growing economic strength, but its impact on the global balance of power remains hotly contested. Political scientist Aaron L. Friedberg argues that our nation’s leaders are failing to act expeditiously enough to counter China’s growing strength. He explains how the United States and China define their goals and reveals the strategies each is now employing to achieve its ends. Friedberg demonstrates in this provocative book that the ultimate aim of Chinese policymakers is to “win without fighting,” displacing the United States as the leading power in Asia while avoiding direct confrontation. The United States, on the other hand, sends misleading signals about our commitments and resolve, putting us at risk for a war that might otherwise have been avoided. A much-needed wake-up call to U.S. leaders and policymakers, A Contest for Supremacy is a compelling interpretation of a rivalry that will go far to determine the shape of the twenty-first century.
Bader, Jeffrey A
Summary
“Future presidents will need to find the right balance in China policy, so as to maintain America’s strength and watchfulness but not fall into the classic security dilemma, wherein each side believes that growing capabilities reflect hostile intent and responds by producing that reality. I believe that President Obama struck that balance.” —From Obama and China’s Rise
In 2005, veteran diplomat and Asia analyst Jeffrey Bader met for the first time with the then-junior U.S. senator from Illinois. When Barack Obama entered the White House a few years later, Bader was named the senior director for East Asian affairs on the National Security Council, becoming one of a handful of advisers responsible for formulating and implementing the administration’s policy regarding that key region. For obvious reasons —a booming economy, expanding military power, and increasing influence over the region —the looming impact of a rising China dominated their efforts.
Obama’s original intent was to extend U.S. influence and presence in East Asia, which he felt had been neglected by a Bush administration fixated on the Middle East, particularly Iraq, and the war on terror. China’s rise, particularly its military buildup, was heightening anxiety among its neighbors, including key U.S. allies Japan and South Korea. Bader explains the administration’s efforts to develop stable relations with China while improving relationships with key partners worried about Beijing’s new assertiveness.
In Obama and China’s Rise, Bader reveals what he did, discusses what he saw, and interprets what it meant —first during the Obama campaign, and then for the administration. The result is an illuminating backstage view of the formulation and execution of American foreign policy as well as a candid assessment of both. Bader combines insightful and authoritative foreign policy analysis with a revealing and humanizing narrative of his own personal journey.
Mohan, C. Raja
Abstract
Mohan talks about Obama’s new framework for South Asia. Quite early on in his campaign, Obama outlined the interconnection between the developments on Pakistan’s western borderlands and its problems on the east with India. Obama and his advisers on South Asia made a bold leap in underlining the need to address Pakistan’s larger security dilemmas in resolving the US problem in Afghanistan. By 2007, US decisionmakers began to appreciate the challenges in Pakistan, a country that is simultaneously a US forward base and a strategic rear for al Qaeda and the Taliban in the Afghan theatre. They also saw that the Pakistani Army and its intelligence arm, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), were playing both sides of the US war in Afghanistan. Washington also struggled to cope with the internal political dynamics in Pakistan that acquired a new democratic edge in 2007 and further complicated the successful pursuit of al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Obama sought to break through this problem by focusing on Pakistan and looking at its security politics in an integrated manner.
Chaudhuri, Rudra
Abstract
Convincing the Pakistani military to focus its attention on the Afghan Taliban and associated groups has so far proved unsuccessful. The Obama administration’s reliance on economic incentives and regional peace initiatives, such as a dialogue with India on Kashmir, has failed to deliver tangible results. Instead, India’s footprint within Afghanistan has expanded, leaving Pakistani elites ever more anxious. Balancing Indian and Pakistani interests in South Asia remains a top priority for Western governments, and most importantly the US. In the current milieu this will require shifting Western bureaucratic focus from the age old and seemingly intractable Kashmir dispute to maintaining the peace within Afghanistan. This article outlines why this shift should be considered, and how the India–Pakistan trust deficit might be bridged.
Swaine, Michael D
Summary
The emergence of China on the world scene constitutes the most significant event in world politics since the end of World War II. Given its size, location, dynamism, and unconventional approach to many global issues, a rapidly growing China will reshape the global distribution of power and major issues confronting the international community.
As the world’s predominant political, economic, and military force, the United States faces a significant challenge in responding to China’s rising power and influence, especially in Asia. This challenge will require more effective U.S. policies and a reassessment of America’s fundamental strategic assumptions and relationships.
Offering a fresh perspective on current and near-term U.S. policy toward China, Michael Swaine examines the basic beliefs behind U.S.-China relations, recent policy practices by both countries, and the future trends most likely to affect U.S. policy. American leaders, he concludes, must develop policies to sustain America’s economic and technological prowess and improve the U.S. strategic position. Otherwise, Washington will have a hard time maintaining a stabilizing presence in East Asia, shaping regional and Chinese strategic perceptions, and managing key policy issues.
Goldstein, Avery
Abstract
Since the mid-1990s, much has been written about the potentially disruptive impact of China if it emerges as a peer competitor challenging the United States. Not enough attention has been paid, however, to a more immediate danger—that the United States and a weaker China will find themselves locked in a crisis that could escalate to open military conflict. The long-term prospect for a new great power rivalry ultimately rests on uncertain forecasts about big shifts in national capabilities and debatable claims about the motivations of the two countries. By contrast, the danger of crisis instability involving these two nuclear-armed states is a tangible near-term concern. An analysis that examines the current state of U.S.-China relations and compares it with key aspects of U.S.-Soviet relations during the Cold War indicates that a serious Sino-American crisis may be more likely and more dangerous than expected. The capabilities each side possesses, and specific features of the most likely scenarios for U.S.-China crises, suggest reasons to worry that escalation pressures will exist and that they will be highest early in a crisis, compressing the time frame for diplomacy to avert military conflict.
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