Ballistic Missile Defense And Northeast Asian Security

Recent US plans to deploy national missile defense (NMD) and theater missile defense (TMD) have emerged as significant issues for stability in Northeast Asia, a region that faces a number of critical uncertainties and daunting security challenges in the coming decade. These uncertainties and challenges include questions about the future US military role in the region, historical distrust between major powers, the continued existence of divided states, ongoing military modernization programs, territorial disputes, resource conflicts, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles, and continuing shifts in relative economic and military power. US interest in deploying NMD and TMD is partly a response to military developments in Northeast Asia, including China's missile buildup across the Taiwan Strait and North Korea's efforts to develop nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles. Yet the US debate about missile defense has largely focused on NMD and the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. This originally steered the debate toward Russia and away from China and Japan. The US national security community has tended to emphasize the military requirements and effectiveness of NMD and TMD without fully examining the regional security implications. As a result, these implications have not been fully explored and debated either within US policymaking circles or with their counterpart communities in China and Japan. Broader US interests in the region, maintenance of US alliances and nonproliferation goals have not been systematically connected to missile defense issues. To address these shortcomings, the Stanley Foundation, in conjunction with the National Defense University and the Monterey Institute of International Studies' Center for Nonproliferation Studies, organized a series of three conferences to conduct a thorough examination of the regional security implications of US NMD and TMD plans. This conference series, titled Ballistic Missile Defense in Northeast Asia: Implications for Security Relations Among the Regional Powers, engaged a wide variety of experts from the United States, China, and Japan to gain insights into the potential political and military implications of specific US deployment modes. A report of the conference series was prepared by Evan S. Medeiros of the Monterey Institute and published by the Stanley Foundation. The following brief highlights the key conclusions of the report.

Essay from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict, Security, grade: 1,3, University of Münster (Institut für Politikwissenschaft), course: Theater Missile Defense in Europe and Asia – A Comparison, language: English, abstract: Strengthening a country’s defences should neither alarm its neighbours nor lead to an arms race. Despite this theoretical cognition of political sciences, the People’s Republic of China sees Ballistic Missile Defence as a threat to its national security. The aim of this essay is to explain why the BMD systems of the USA are threatening China’s national security. I will show that it is mainly a psychological discourse. Although, or precisely therefore, it is very important for the understanding of China’s position and assumptions. We will understand that China faces a security dilemma which is threatening the national security and ultimately lead to an arms race. I will show that the technical aspects here are not as important as the psychological implications. Missile Defence “hints at the psychological side of international politics.” The US’s BMD systems may not work well enough to be technically a real threat to any country, but the development and instalment causes China’s threat perceptions. BM is used “as a saber-rattling show of force, for intimidation in order to reach a political goal or simply as deterrence against a perceived outside threat or imminent attack.” For the People’s Republic of China there are two main issues: First, a period of strategic transition between the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China and second, the US transfer of advanced PAC-3 Systems to Taiwan. “The negative impact of missile defense deployments on Sino-US relations could potentially be reduced by offsetting them with political and economic measures to reassure China.” Chinas concerns about missile defence focus mainly on political questions. Thoughts, fears and perceptions of Chinese officials and experts focus on Japanese militarization, the possibility that TMD would encourage Taiwan’s independence and the uncertainty about US intentions toward China. I will focus on the uncertainty about US intentions but I can’t leave out the other two aspects totally. We will have a better understanding of the Chinese mind if we are aware of China’s principle national priorities. On the one hand the Communist Party wants stay in power. For this reason they need social stability. On the other hand the economic development is very important for the country. It is the goal to have a continued economic growth. Additionally this plays in favour of social stability.

Essay from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict Studies, Security, grade: 1,3, University of Münster (Institut für Politikwissenschaft), course: Theater Missile Defense in Europe and Asia - A Comparison, language: English, abstract: Strengthening a country's defences should neither alarm its neighbours nor lead to an arms race. Despite this theoretical cognition of political sciences, the People's Republic of China sees Ballistic Missile Defence as a threat to its national security. The aim of this essay is to explain why the BMD systems of the USA are threatening China's national security. I will show that it is mainly a psychological discourse. Although, or precisely therefore, it is very important for the understanding of China's position and assumptions. We will understand that China faces a security dilemma which is threatening the national security and ultimately lead to an arms race. I will show that the technical aspects here are not as important as the psychological implications. Missile Defence "hints at the psychological side of international politics." The US's BMD systems may not work well enough to be technically a real threat to any country, but the development and instalment causes China's threat perceptions. BM is used "as a saber-rattling show of force, for intimidation in order to reach a political goal or simply as deterrence against a perceived outside threat or imminent attack." For the People's Republic of China there are two main issues: First, a period of strategic transition between the United States of America and the People's Republic of China and second, the US transfer of advanced PAC-3 Systems to Taiwan. "The negative impact of missile defense deployments on Sino-US relations could potentially be reduced by offsetting them with political and economic measures to reassure China." Chinas concerns about missile defence focus mainly on political questions. Thoughts, fears and percep

Colonel Patrick M. O'Donogue (U.S. Army War College class of 2000) considers a topic of key importance to U.S. national security. Perhaps no security matter (with the exception of National Missile Defense) is as contentious globally as Theater Missile Defense (TMD). The question of U.S. assistance to Japan to develop and deploy a TMD is particularly complex and controversial.

The Evolving Military Balance in the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia describes the strategy, force deployments, and the military balance in potential current and future scenarios involving the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Republic of Korea, People’s Republic of China, Japan, and the United States. The analysis in these volumes shows how tensions between the Koreas—and the potential involvement of the China, Japan, Russia, and the United States—create a nearly open-ended spectrum of possible conflicts. These range from posturing and threats (“wars of intimidation”) to a major conventional conflict on the Korean Peninsula to intervention by outside powers like the United States and China to the extreme of nuclear conflict. The analysis shows that the Korean balance is sharply affected by the uncertain mix of cooperation and competition between the United States and China. The U.S. rebalancing of its forces to Asia and the steady modernization of Chinese forces, in particular the growth of Chinese sea-air-missile capabilities, affect the balance in the Koreas and Northeast Asia. They also raise the possibility of far more intense conflicts that could extend far beyond the boundaries of the Koreas.

An in-depth study of the military, economic, and political implications of the strategic and tactical missile defences for the Asian-Pacific region. It offers recent research on the status of SDI and Asian-Pacific countries and offers an introduction to the SDI debate and Europe.

Details North Korea's technology, infrastructure, and institutions and discusses difficulties the country faces in creating alternatives to a nuclear weapons program within the context of maintaining environmentally sound, ecologically sustainable energy development in the region. Contains sections on nuclear reactors and technology transfer, economic sanctions and incentives, strategy and confidence building, and Korea and the major powers. Includes appendices of documents. Paper edition (unseen), $24.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR