More than a decade has passed since the end of the Cold War, but Asia still faces serious security challenges. These include the intractable conflicts in the Korean peninsula, across the Taiwan Strait, and over Kashmir, the danger of nuclear and missile proliferation, and the concern with the rising power of China and with American dominance. Indeed, some experts see Asia as a dangerous and unstable place. Alagappa disagrees, maintaining that Asia is a far more stable, predictable, and prosperous region that it was in the postindependence period. With very few exceptions Asian states do not fear for their survival, most disputes are managed or adjusted in a peaceful manner, and, despite setbacks, international trade, investment, and production have flourished. Alagappa argues that in fact a relatively stable security order exists in Asia.

Intended as a follow-up to Asian Security Practice (Stanford, 1998), the first part of this volume develops an analytical framework for the study of order; the salience of the different pathways to order are examined in the second part; the third investigates the management of specific security issues; and the final part discusses the nature of security order in Asia.

c Stanford University Press