Asian Security Handbook: An Assessment of Political-Security Issues in the Asia-Pacific Region (review)

Reviews 83 field ofresearch in terms oftime, media, the types ofliterature interacting with the visual arts, and the social statuses ofart consumers. NOTES1. The Compelling Image: Nature and Style in Seventeenth-Century Chinese Painting(Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 1982), was based on the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures that Cahill gave in 1979; and Three Alternative Histories ofChinese Painting, the Franklin D. Murphy Lectures, 9 (Lawrence, Kansas: Spencer Museum ofArt, University ofKansas, 1988), was based on lectures he gave in 1987. 2.For example, editors sometimes claim that readers will be unwilling to tum books sideways to see plates. This is given as a reason why book designers do not better utilize available page space to fit the format ofthe art object. 3.Cahill summarizes this study on pp. 91-92, but cites it repeatedly. See Liu Qiaomei, "Wan Ming Suzhou huihua zhong di shihua guanxi," Yishu xue, no. 6 (September 1991). 4.Alfreda Murck, "The Eight Views ofXiao-Xiangand the Northern Song Culture ofExile ," Journal ofSung-Yüan Studies 26 (1996): 113-144. 5.See pp. 52-53, where Cahill writes that Southern Song academic paintings were different from the poems they evoked, because viewers would not have "read" them as personal expressions by the painters, whereas many poems were meant to be interpreted as traces ofthe poets' feelings. FiSe William M. Carpenter and David G. Wiencek, editors. Asian Security Handbook: An Assessment ofPolitical-Security Issues in theAsia-Pacific Region . Armonk and London: M. E. Sharpe, 1996. xv, 301 pp. Hardcover $68.95, isbn 1-56324-813-1. Paperback $27.95, isbn 56324-814-x. This three-hundred-page volume is intended to fill a gap in the literature that lies somewhere between a textbook such as Douglas J. Murray and Paul R. Viotti's The Defense Policies ofNations: A Comparative Study, third edition (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994), and such annual reviews as the Far East Economic Review's Asia Yearbook and the IISS's Military Balance. As one who has used all three as class texts, it seems to me that the book under review would be an ideal starting point for students to gain the bare essentials on a new and unfamiliar country or topic—to get them started on a research project. No one would© 1998 by University ever want t0 sjt ¿own ^d rea(] ft fr0m cover to cover. Under no circumstances ofHawai?Pressshould itbe the onlysource on a subject: itis so comprehensive in its coverage that it doesn't cover any one topic very thoroughly. The editors simply claim that their volume "seeks to shed light on the key political and security factors and geo- 84 China Review International: Vol. 5, No. 1, Spring 1998 political trends that bear monitoring, and to point out new types of security issues that have greater significance in the post-Cold War environment" (p. xi). Unfortunately, its treatments are so cursory that even some of the major issues are omitted. The book covers eighteen countries plus Hong Kong, "from Ulan Bator to Wellington and from Islamabad to Manila," including such neglected states as Burma, Laos, Mongolia, and New Zealand. Carpenter and Wiencek, either together or individually, account for six chapters. There are twenty-two other contributors altogether, some ofwhom also write more than one chapter. The chapters are of two sorts: (1) essays on regional issues and organizations, and (2) country profiles. All of the latter supposedly employ "political risk assessment, an analytical technique that highlights key internal and external political-security problems facing a country" (p. xii). Each country profile is supposed to highlight the role of the armed forces, the military force structure, and defense policy issues . It will be no surprise to anyone who ever edited a volume of scholarly papers that many of the authors depart substantially from this format. Indeed, some seem to ignore it completely—which seems perfectiy reasonable in a few cases (e.g., Hong Kong). Another problem that will be recognized by any experienced book editor is that some of the chapters seem more or less overrun by events. Some of the pieces (e.g., the introductory chapter on "Security in East Asia" by Robert Manning) are up-to...