ABSTRACT
Since the late 1980s there has been considerable publicity regarding a putative ‘arms race’ in East Asia, including the ASEAN region. Military expenditure and arms imports in the wider East Asian region have increased quite dramatically in both absolute terms and as proportions of global aggregates. 1 In Southeast Asia, it is evident that the governments of all six members 2 of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are determined to develop more substantial defence capabilities. This paper examines the factors which have influenced the ASEAN states’ defence policies in recent years, and surveys the impact of these defence policies in terms of trends in military spending and defence equipment procurement in each ASEAN member.
