ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of big powers and the role of this norm in the constitution and in the cause of the decline in East Asian battle deaths. It looks at the subordination of East Asian conflict developments to the changes in global big power politics, power relations and power structures. It also shows that in fact the external interference by military means has been the main curse in the region and primarily focuses on big-power influence, but also the intervention of any power into domestic disputes. The chapter argues that the norm of military non-interference entered into East Asian rhetoric as well as practice in the 1970s, and has affected international relations and internal disputes of the region ever since. It argues the change in the norm and practice of military interference had a crucial association with the drastic decline of battle deaths as escalation from conflicts to wars disappeared after the norm.