ABSTRACT
The United States (US) forward deployed strategy, particularly as it involves exercises in the northern Seas of Japan and Okhotsk, raised Soviet anxieties. Indeed, in a post-Cold War Asia, a Russian presence might even be welcomed by the US as part of a multinational constabulary operating throughout the western Pacific to maintain freedom of the seas. The Soviet call for Helsinki-type regional security conference for Asia was an effort at legitimatizing a permanent Soviet presence and voice in Asian security matters. The powerful Russian submarine fleet is, therefore, an incipient threat countered through an alliance with the US or perhaps, in the future, through a negotiated reduction in regional arms. Like the US, Japan is a trading nation dependent upon open sea lanes. North Korea's ambivalent policy toward the South probably reflects crosspressures within its leadership. Most military analysts believe that South Korea should be able to deter and defend against the North primarily on its own after the mid-1990s.
