ABSTRACT
From Singapore to Washington and from Tokyo to Canberra, officials, scholars, and policy analysts are discussing the future of international relations in the Asia-Pacific region. They are debating the impact of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the growing diplomatic assertiveness of Japan, the apparent strategic retrenchment of the United States, and the economic resurgence of China. They are asking whether the end of the Cold War and the rise of economic interdependence will lead to greater stability, or whether they will simply produce new tension and conflict. They are pondering the prospects for economic integration in the region and the desirability of multilateral security mechanisms. At root, all these questions involve different aspects of the same fundamental issue: the nature of the evolving international order in the Asia-Pacific region.
