East Asia and the United States into the Twenty-First Century

A perceived decline of the Soviet threat in East Asia and the Pacific, reductions in the US defense budget, and changes in US-Asian relations require a fundamental reexamination of current and future US security policy toward East Asia. The region itself is changing as the ideological causes of tensions decrease, territorial-ethnic-political squabbles increase, and market economics and political liberalization assert themselves. Numerous proposals for future US policy and strategy are being discussed-from insisting that our allies pay much more for defense, to keeping or relinquishing bases in the Philippines, to phased US troop reductions, to involving the Soviets in Pacific arms control negotiations. Some of these proposals are motivated by narrow concerns: trade deficits, the perceived Soviet decline, nationalism, budget problems, or other special interests. Seldom do they acknowledge the large and growing US stake in East Asia.