ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on multilateralism and international security that pertain more specifically to East Asia in general and Japan in particular. At the global level, an anti-Western Sino-Russian collusion would certainly be destabilizing; fortunately, it is still eminently avoidable, given the very serious differences of interest which currently limit the scope for a Moscow—Beijing convergence. The largely selfish motives of the superpowers thus laid the foundations for a set of policies which have outlasted the Cold War. Even a cursory reading of the UN Charter suffices to remind one of the great gap between the aspirations of 1945 and Cold War reality. In South-East Asia, a multilateral organization, ostensibly along North Atlantic Treaty Organization lines, was set up within the framework of the Manila Treaty. Furthermore, the impact on East Asian security is particularly important, given the combination of regional instability and industrial capability which would otherwise make this region a prime candidate for runaway proliferation.
