Pacific Insecurity: Emerging Threats to Stability in East Asia‪.‬

EAST ASIA IS ONE OF THE WORLD'S primary arenas of international competition and collaboration in the post-Cold War era. Over the past century and a half, the region has experienced recurrent great power rivalries, military intervention, colonialism, revolutionary nationalism, and interstate as well as civil conflict. In recent decades, however, revolutionary upheaval has been supplanted by rapid and sustained economic growth, enabling the region to achieve unparalleled well-being and enhanced political stability. This unprecedented economic expansion has also allowed numerous states to augment their military power in pursuit of longer-range national security goals. As the next century approaches, a pivotal question is whether the states of East Asia will be able to create a political and security structure commensurate with their economic success. Can the nations of the region define a satisfactory framework for interstate relations in pursuit of their separate national interests without inducing destabilizing geopolitical realignment or overt military hostilities? To some observers, the cessation of the US-Soviet global rivalry, the absence of a serious regional military crisis since the Sino-Vietnamese border war of 1979, and the nascent emergence of region-wide economic and political institutions suggest such a prospect.