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Asian-Pacific Strategic Relations: Seeking Convergent Security

William T. Tow
Reviewed by By Lucian W. Pye
January/February 2003
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William T. Tow
Cambridge University Press
2002
303 pp.
0521003687
$70.00

Australian political scientist Tow has blended a hard-edged realist approach with a liberal perspective to produce a detailed and thoughtful analysis of the strategic outlooks of all the important actors in the Asia-Pacific region. He analyzes in great depth the considerations behind the foreign policies of each of the countries; while giving appropriate attention to all the hot spots that might be the causes of war, he arrives at an optimistic projection of a future based on what he calls "convergent security strategies." Although the book has a strong and well-argued thesis, it also reviews in detail just about all of the problems, issues, and arguments inherent in the international relations of the region.

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