ABSTRACT
In the twenty-first century, Asia will replace Europe as the center of global political, economic, and security gravity. The countries of Northeast Asia will be at the core; unfortunately, the region’s security environment is fragile and fraught with potential instability. The region is less stable than many had anticipated in light of the end of the Cold War. The Taiwan Strait and the Korean Peninsula are two of the world’s most dangerous military flashpoints. Intra-regional rivalries could prove increasingly dangerous. Defense budgets and advanced weapons acquisitions are on the rise. Some countries already have nuclear weapons while others are capable of quickly adding them to their arsenals. Regrettably, the region has yet to develop a multilateral security framework for addressing mutual concerns and initiating confidence and security-building measures. Despite the prospects of growing interdependence, the question writ large is: will the major powers manage—or mismanage—the current peace.
