Security In Northeast Asia: Approaching The Pacific Century
Among the several informative essays in this collection, the one by Sarah Taylor on the military balances in Northeast Asia is outstanding. She analyzes with convincing detail the potential for military conflict on the Sino-Soviet border, in Korea, in the Sea of Japan and in the sea-lanes of the Western Pacific. What emerges from the discussion is a consistent portrait of the Soviet Union and North Korea, isolated diplomatically and economically in Northeast Asia and relying heavily on military power. The essay evidently predates Gorbachev's efforts to revitalize Moscow's diplomatic position in the region.
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China's saber-rattling over its "renegade province" ignores Taiwan's decades of democracy. If Beijing wants one China, it should conciliate, not intimidate.
The simmering dispute over the status of Taiwan may soon explode in violence. The Chinese regime sees Taiwan's recent democratization as an implicit challenge to its own authority and legitimacy and thus continues to threaten and intimidate the island. Meanwhile, Taiwan has procured advanced defensive weapons from the United States. Growing tensions across the Taiwan Strait, along with the lack of military and diplomatic communication, make conflict -- possibly involving the United States -- increasingly likely. To avoid such an outcome, Washington should actively facilitate cross-strait dialogue and deter provocations by either side. But it must do so soon, for both China and Taiwan are growing impatient.
Since independence, India's nuclear policy has been to seek either global disarm ament or equal security for all. The old nonproliferation regime was discriminatory, ratifying the possession of nuclear weapons for the permanent five members of the U.N. Security Council while preaching to the nuclear have-nots about the virtues of disarmament. India was left sandwiched between two nuclear weapons powers, Pakistan and a rising China. The end of the Cold War has not ushered in an era where globalization and trade trump old-fashioned security woes. If nuclear deterrence works in the West, why won't it work in India?

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