Defence And Arms Control

This text examines arms control and defence restructuring in East Asia. It explores Western misconceptions of Asia and provides a survey of security and defence political trends in Asia. Asia has been the subject of heated debates in the west, and among the disputed issues are: whether the west is heading for a confrontation with the rest, ie an alliance between the confucian and Islamic civilizations - a clash of civilizations; does the lack of international organizations in Asia imply that the region is a raw international anarchy, or are there functional substitutes at work; are Asian notions fundamentally bellicose, or at least more inclined to use force than the west; should the west be concerned with the apparent arms build-up in parts of Asia; and if so, is the appropriate western response a compensatory build-up of arms, accompanied by the adoption of counter-proliferation strategies?

In this groundbreaking analysis, Stuart Croft brings the subject of arms control into the era of complex, multi-polar international relations. He moves beyond the narrow definitions of the phenomenon associated with the Cold War to show how it not only has a long past, but also a clear future. The author begins by tracing the history of agreements between polities over weapons back to ancient times. An understanding of this history allows him to put forward a typology of arms control. It occurs at the end of major conflicts, stabilises balances between states, develops norms of behaviour, manages weapons proliferation, and acts as a tool of international organisations. Stuart Croft examines the evolution of these five qualitatively different strategies, and applies the typology to arms control agreements in the post-Cold War world. This definitive new study will be of interest to students in international relations and security studies, as well as specialists in these disciplines.