Asia has already risen by most hard-power measures. But without an understanding of the downsides of Asia’s rise, the conventional narrative is incomplete, misleading, and inaccurate. Chung Min Lee explores the fundamental dichotomy that defines contemporary Asia. While the region has been an unparalleled economic success, it is also home to some of the world’s most dangerous, diverse, and divisive challenges. Contrary to prevailing wisdom, he says, Asia’s rise doesn’t mean the demise of the West.Asia’s rise over the past four decades is one of the most significant geopolitical and geoeconomic developments in world affairs as evinced by China’s, and more recently, India’s, accelerated economic growth. Yet the conventional narrative of Asia’s rise is incomplete, if not misleading, given the fundamental dichotomy that defines contemporary Asia: a region with unparalleled economic success but also home to the world’s most dangerous, diverse, and divisive security, military, and political challenges. How the strategically consequential Asian states manage to ameliorate or even overcome traditional geopolitical tinderboxes across the Taiwan Strait, the Korean Peninsula, and the Indian subcontinent and new zones of strategic competition such as the South China Sea is to going to have a profound impact on the shaping of regional order well into the 21st century.

Product Description: Defining and conceptualizing Northeast Asia’s security complex poses unique quandaries. The security architecture in Northeast Asia to date has been predominately U.S.-dominated bilateral alliances, weak institutional structures and the current Six Party Talks dealing with the North Korean nuclear issue...read more

Provides an assessment of the role of nuclear weapons in Asia, its implications for security, and the conditions under which more Asian countries might seek to acquire a nuclear capability. This book focuses on understanding the nuclear proliferation networks that enabled small and middle ranking powers to pursue nuclear weapons programs.

Product Description: This study examines four alternative scenarios that would result in the unification of the Korean peninsula. The authors describe the defining characteristics of each scenario, potential indicators that would predict specific outcomes, some possible variations in paths to unification, and some operational implications for the U...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)