ABSTRACT

What do the major states of Asia view as the emerging challenges in their immediate security environment as well as in the broader Asian region? What future security outcomes would make them believe that strategic stability had been achieved in the Asian continent? Central to the latter question is China and the path it will take to rise to superpower status. While all the major Asian states increasingly are both economically and politically engaged with China, doubts remain about China's long-term intentions. This volume discusses the military, diplomatic and economic measures being taken by the major Asian countries and Australia to establish a new framework for strategic stability. In the process, the contributors examine the global pressures that are impacting on these countries' security dilemmas and, from the perspective of these countries, the patterns of expected behaviour that China would have to fulfil for a regional security order to emerge in Asia.

chapter |6 pages

Introduction