ABSTRACT

The concept of a multilateral, pan-Asian security organization and its name, the “Conference on Security and Cooperation in Asia (CSCA),” were Soviet creations. The original Soviet proposal, Brezhnev’s Collective Security Initiative of 1969, by excluding the US and China, constituted more an effort to obtain unilateral advantage for the Soviet Union than a plan for a serious regional security regime. Soviet initiatives also appeared self-serving because they were seen as a means to break up the US-Japan defense alliance and to put pressure on US deployments throughout Asia, especially in the Indian Ocean and at US bases in the Philippines. The impracticality of a one-step all-encompassing CSCA added to the impression that Soviet initiatives were designed more for propaganda than for practical value. The Asia-Pacific nations also perceived the CSCA concept as a self-serving effort to increase Soviet influence and stature in Asia.