ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the notion of strategic culture and its implications for security developments in the Asia-Pacific region. It describes the principal purported elements of strategic culture in the region, and assesses the extents to which they have any real substance, widespread application, or significant impact on emerging processes of security cooperation and confidence building in the region. The chapter suggests that cultural factors are less important than economic, technological and strategic developments in determining the new architecture of regional security. The principal elements of the Asia-Pacinc strategic culture include longer time horizons and policy perspectives than those which characterise Western thinking and planning; and reliance on bilateral rather than multilateral approaches to conflict resolution and security planning. The elements also include multidimensional or comprehensive approaches to security; and roles for the military that go beyond national defense to include politics, economic development and social affairs.
