Asian Security Practice: Material and Ideational Influences
by
Muthiah Alagappa (ed.)
Stanford: Stanford University Press
Summary
This study investigates the security thinking and behavior, or security practice, of Asian elites as well as that of other segments of society that challenge the elites’ conception of security. It identifies the critical security problems and approaches, and the factors that underlie or shape them, for each of sixteen selected countries. The study also identifies and explains the key common features that characterize security practice in most if not all Asian states, as well as conceptualize security on the basis of the Asian experience.
Its purpose is not to provide time-sensitive guidance for policy makers on immediate issues but, rather, to illuminate the sources and nature of such internal and international security concerns of Asian elites and to explain their behavior at the domestic, regional and global levels to facilitate analysis and contribute to policy making in the long term. It may also enable analysts and policy makers to make more accurate judgments about the future of the region as well as helping them to shape initiatives to promote peace and security in Asia and the Pacific.
© Stanford University Press
Review
"Who should read this book? Just about anyone with a serious interest in Asian affairs for there is a rich lode of insight and knowledge contained within its pages and the comprehensive 74 page bibliography. This book is, without doubt, a major contribution to the literature on Asian security practice and one which can be confidently predicted to become a standard reference for many years to come."
Alan DuPont,
Australian National University
Journal of Asian Studies
"What will be the nature of the relations among the newly empowered nations of this increasingly important region? Will the international politics of Asia in the years immediately ahead be characterized more by rising levels of cooperation and stability or by intensifying competition and conflict? Muthiah Alagappa's edited volume provides an invaluable source of information and insight for anyone wishing to wrestle with these large and urgent questions . . . Alagappa has succeeded in orienting contributors toward a unifying concept ('security practice') and a common set of questions . . . with a clear introduction, a useful review of recent theoretical debates on the concept of security, and an excellent historical overview of the international politics of Asia . . . The essays explore the evolving security practices of the major Asian powers . . . These chapters are admirably rich in empirical detail, and their analytical quality is uniformly high."
Aaron L. Friedberg
Princeton University
American Political Science Review
