East Asia in Cold War mode
Dated 31/10/2005
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In the 21st century, East Asia is likely to be the most critically important strategic region in the world. In East Asia intersect the vital national security and strategic interests of the world's most powerful nations, namely, the United States, Russia, China and Japan.
The first three are nuclear weapons states and also Permanent Members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Japan aspires to be a Permanent Member of the UNSC. It could also go in for acquisition of nuclear weapons, should its relations with China deteriorate, and China not arresting the downslide in relations. Japan could also go nuclear should no answers are found by the major powers to roll back North Korea's nuclear arsenal.
East Asia has been in a perpetual state of Cold War since 1945. The Cold War never ended in East Asia. In the so called post-Cold War era whereas in Europe, the East-West military confrontation ended with the unraveling of the Warsaw Pact, this region continued with the bi-lateral military alliances of the United States with Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines.
While Russia as the Cold War adversary and the Russian threat receded post-1991, a new threat emerged in the threat perceptions of the United States and Japan primarily. China increasingly began to emerge as a strategic concern in East Asia, leading to new military tensions.
East Asia today is in a Cold War mode, primarily because the two major strategic partners of the Cold War in this region, the United States and Japan fear that China
