Security Issues and New Transnational Peace-Related Movements in East Asia, The 1990S and 2000S‪.‬

Introduction Since the end of the Cold War, scholars have debated over whether or not East Asia is "ripe for rivalry" and recurrent tensions and crises in the Taiwan Straits and the Korean Peninsula since the early 1990s have made this region of the world a closely watched one (Berger, 2000; Friedberg, 1993-94; Christenson, 1999). In addition to new opportunities and challenges for states, the end of the Cold War and political changes have also presented new opportunities for civil society activism which has in turn also affected the prospects for peace in the region. In the past two decades, new social movements dealing directly with security-related issues have emerged in Japan, China, Korea and Taiwan at not only the local and national level, but also at the regional and international level. This article looks at these new movements to analyze the ways in which non-governmental organizations (NGOs), social activists and forces "from below" have affected the security environment in Northeast Asia. As I shall show, these new peace-related movements play multifaceted roles, sometimes offering new solutions, while at other times adding to existing tensions or posing dilemmas to states.