Changing Security Dynamics in Eastern Asia: Focus on Japan

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This book is the outcome of the proceedings of the 7th Asian Security Conference organised by IDSA in January 2005. Eastern Asia was chosen keeping in view the remarkable transformation this region has been witnessing since the end of the Cold War. The special focus on Japan was to underscore the profound changes that Japan is effecting to its security and foreign policies and their likely impact on the rest of the region. Given its enormous complexity, while the region continues to be the most promising in terms of economic dynamism, its security remains a cause for concern. Intra-regional economic integration and cooperation is growing apace, but there are many issues that may imperil regional peace and stability. It is this dynamic that the Conference wanted to capture. The book is an important contribution to the ongoing debate on the East Asian security dynamic.

NS Sisodia is Director of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), New Delhi, and a Member of the National Security Advisory Board. He holds an Honour's degree in History from University of Delhi and a Master's degree in Public Policy and Management from Harvard University, where he was a Mason Fellow. He joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1968 and served as Additional Secretary, National Security Council Secretariat and Secretary to Government of India in the Ministries of Finance and Defence. He was a member of the Task Force constituted to recommend measures for Reforming the Management of Defence. He has also been Vice-Chancellor, University of Udaipur.

GV C Naidu is Senior Fellow with the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), New Delhi. A doctorate from Jawaharlal Nehru University, he specialises in security issues in the Asia-Pacific. His research interests include security problems of the Asia-Pacific, role of multilateralism, Japan's foreign and security policies, US policies towards Asia, energy and maritime-related issues, and India's relations with Southeast Asia and Japan. He has published a book on the Indian Navy and Southeast Asia and several monographs.

This book is the outcome of the 7th Asian Security Conference organised by IDSA in January 2005. The theme, Changing Security Dynamic in Eastern Asia: Focus on Japan, was chosen keeping in view the remarkable transformation this region has seen since the end of the Cold War. The special focus on Japan was to underscore the significant changes that Japan is effecting to its security and foreign policies and their likely impact on the region.

Perhaps there is no other region in the world whose regional security is as hotly debated as that of Eastern Asia. While the region continues to be the most promising in terms of economic dynamism, its security remains a cause for concern. There is, however, no imminent danger of a conflict breaking out, even though a number of flashpoints and unresolved border/territorial problems persist. Many profound changes occurring in the region lead to the growing belief that these developments may fundamentally alter the nature of regional security order. The concern is that, changes in the present regional equilibrium and order will have important consequences in terms of peace, stability, development, great power relations, and the role of the newly created multilateral initiatives. These are issues that need to be examined. In this backdrop, there is need to improve the understanding and management of regional security and the approaches that can be employed for the purpose.