Introduction

The United States has reached an important policy crossroads in the maintenance of its European and Asian collective defense arrangements. The Asian-Pacific alliance system devised by the United States was initiated with the signing of the Japanese Peace Treaty at San Francisco in September 1951 and pacts with Australia and New Zealand and the Philippines. The Reagan administration has identified the Soviet Union as the primary security threat to Asian-Pacific states in a manner reminscent of the containment approach championed by Dulles. The emergence of a China-Japan security consortium over time might provide a power pole which could attract lesser Asian powers as an alternative to superpower alignment. The possible ramifications of growing Soviet military power in Asia are becoming more apparent to the smaller Asian-Pacific powers as well. The Korean Peninsula remains a key to Soviet, Chinese, and Japanese military geography.