Author Description

Northeast Asia's stunningly successful political economy threatens to become a military danger zone - with global implications. In Pacific Defense, Kent E. Calder, director of the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School, shows how a combination of high-speed economic growth, impending energy shortages, and political insecurity could well provoke an accelerating arms buildup and deepening geopolitical rivalries. Here he explains the urgent need for a strategic, far-sighted American role in defusing these dangerous possibilities. Calder analyzes the risks to regional stability of Asia's continuing struggle for offshore oil, and the subtle dangers that regional energy dependence on the Middle East may bring. He also points to the possible links between efforts to acquire civilian nuclear power and the potential for nuclear armament. Political uncertainty casts deep shadows over Asia's key nations, as experienced leaders pass from the scene and popular frustrations mount, from the large cities of China to the crucial U.S.-Japan island military bastion of Okinawa. Calder provides a dynamic overview of where each country is headed politically and describes the role that the United States can play in these developments, from improving security relations with Japan to studying alternate sources of energy for China to resolving nuclear arms issues in North Korea.