Confidence-Building in South-East Asia

Despite reductions in military budgets elsewhere, many of the countries in East Asia continue to fund ambitious programmes to modernize their armed forces with new conventional arms. Made possible by record economic growth, the arms build-up in the region has been fuelled by continuing certainty about the post-Cold-War balance of power and by the prominent role that the military plays in the internal politics of many East Asian states. Based on detailed research, and making use of case studies of countries in the Asia-Pacific region, this book provides an account of the developing regional-security dialogue and a survey of the public availability of military information in this volatile region. It includes an examination of the role that the UN Register is playing in the process of confidence-building.