Security Politics in Asia and Europe-Renegotiating Asia's Regional Security Order: The Role of the United States (original) (raw)
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Journal of Politics and Governance, 2018
The relationship between the countries has witnessed a phenomenal change. Asian continent has not been untouched from it. There is belligerent North Korea on one side and the untrammelled ambition of China on the other. The insurgency in Afghanistan has taken a new twist with dwindling number of International Security Assistance Force. The thorns in the relationship between India and Pakistan remain while Sino India relationship also has witnessed drastic dip. Trump's Presidency further created a fear psychosis among members of the Muslim world. The tensions remain unabated in South and East China Sea. String of Pearls theory and one belt one road policy are being incorporated as new alibis to promote one's interest. The Dokalam conflict between India and China has unravelled the fragile relations between two Asian super giants. The gigantic metamorphism of China as the economic hub of Asia has instilled it with overbearing and over domineering attitude towards its neighbours which does not portend well for the regional diplomacy. Various international meets and forums and military exercises do play a very critical role in today's environment in forging ties and relations. Role of United Nations cannot be relegated to secondary position.
Asia's security environment : from subordinate to region dominant system
2008
To provide the context for investigating the roles of nuclear weapons and their implications for regional security and stability, this chapter maps Asia's present security environment and likely changes in that environment. lt advances four propositions. First, contemporary Asia's security environment is fundamentally different from that of the Cold War period when Asia was a subordinate security region penetrated and dominated by the ideological and strategic confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. Today, Asia has become a core world region with distinctive economic, normative, and institutional features. The dynamics of security in Asia are increasingly shaped by the interaction of interests and priorities of states in the Asian security region. Conflict formation, management, and resolution are grounded largely in regional and local dynamics. Extraregional actors are involved but their salience derives from their interaction with Asian state and nons tate actors on issues of mutual concern. Second, Asia's security environment is likely to substantially alter over the next two to three decades. Escalation or resolution of regional conflicts (Taiwan, Korea, and Kashmir) and regime change in countries like China, Indonesia, and Pakistan could bring about interaction change at a subregional level. They may also trigger broader changes. More fundamental system-level consequences, however, are likely to result from two ongoing trends. One is the rise of Asian powers, their quests for power, status, and wealth, and differing visions of regional order set in a context of the continuing desire of the United States to remain the preeminent power in Asia. The sustained rise of Asian powers is likely to result in gradual structure change and make relative gain considerations and strategic competition more significant. China's rise would pose the most significant challenge to the U.S.-dominated security order in Asia making Sino-American relations the
Strategic Forum. August 2013. The Rebalance to Asia: U.S.-China Relations and Regional Security
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, Obama administration officials proclaimed a U.S. "return to Asia." This pronouncement was backed with more frequent travel to the region by senior officials (Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's first trip was to Asia) and increased U.S. participation in regional multilateral meetings, culminating in the decision to sign the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Treaty of Amity and Cooperation and to participate in the East Asia Summit (EAS) at the head-of-state level. The strategic "rebalance to Asia" announced in November 2011 builds on these earlier actions to deepen and institutionalize U.S. commitment to the Asia-Pacific region. Asia's rapid growth and economic dynamism have greatly expanded the region's economic and strategic weight, elevating its importance for U.S. interests and demanding an increased U.S. focus. This evolution has been welcomed by America's Asia specialists, who have long advocated greater investment of resources and attention from high-level U.S. policymakers. 1 At a time of often bitter partisanship in the United States, there is broad, bipartisan consensus on Asia's importance. Indeed, partisan criticism has focused primarily on whether the administration in power is doing enough to increase U.S. engagement in Asia and whether rhetorical commitment is backed with sufficient resources. 2 While some initial comments about the U.S. "return to Asia" were cast in terms of correcting alleged neglect of the region by the administration of George W. Bush, senior Obama administration officials believed that the war on terror and U.S. military commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan had produced an imbalanced global footprint. The United States was overweighted in the Middle East and underweighted in the Asia-Pacific. 3 The phrase rebalance to Asia was intended to highlight the region's heightened priority within U.S. global policy.
The Changing East Asian Security Landscape
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While East Asia 1 gradually turns into the economically most important region worldwide, security risks seem to be increasing not diminishing. Besides traditional security issues, such as the Taiwan question, the strained relations between North and South Korea as well as North Korea's unpredictable external politics, maritime conflicts between China and some ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) members in the South China Sea as much as between Japan and China about a group of islands in the East China Sea are also increasingly matters of concern. Moreover, facing a military rising and increasingly assertive China, not only traditional allies and strategic partners of the United States such as Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Thailand and Singapore but also new potential allies such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and even Myanmar are asking the US to play a larger role in the regional security architecture in East Asia (while Thailand, isolated by the West after the 2014 coup seems to be shifting toward China).
Asian Perspective, 2011
The current East Asian strategic environment and US strategy toward the region reveal that the United States faces foreign policy problems that would diminish US influence in the long term. While establishing an East Asian regional security architecture would curtail such progression, its design needs to be considered due to political and military uncertainty caused by China's rise. In this context, the article compares the validity of five policy alternatives in terms of effectiveness, costs, risk, and uncertainty. The argument is that the United States, as the most pivotal player in East Asian security, needs to reconstruct its security strategy toward East Asia by establishing a “regional security nexus” that allows US allies to have more diplomatic autonomy in nurturing and building an open regional community while strengthening security ties with the United States.