Strategic Asia 2008-09

Title Page, Copyright

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pp. iii-iv

Contents

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pp. v-vii

Preface

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pp. ix-xv

Strategic Asia 2008–09: Challenges and Choices is the eighth in the series of annual assessments produced by NBR’s Strategic Asia Program. In the context of a U.S. presidential election year, the timeliness of this year’s volume underscores the elemental decisions on Asia facing the next U.S. ...

Strategic Asia 2008–09 Overview

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p. 1-1

Preserving Hegemony: The Strategic Tasks Facing the United States

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pp. 2-37

The U.S. experience of hegemony in global politics is still very young. Although the United States entered the international system as a great power early in the twentieth century, its systemic impact was not felt until World War II and, soon thereafter, its power was constrained by the ...

Strategic Asia 2008–09 Country Studies

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p. 39-39

The United States and Asia

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pp. 40-68

The biggest challenges facing the United States in Asia are in the longer term and will come from evolving conditions in the balance of power. The principal unresolved question here is whether (and how) the United States will accommodate the rise of China or strive to keep the prerogatives of ...

Managing China as a Strategic Challenge

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pp. 70-105

During the past several decades, and particularly during the tenure of the George W. Bush administration, the dynamic economic growth, expanding capabilities, and deepening involvement of China (also known as the People’s Republic of China, PRC) in a wide range of regional and ...

Japan: Divided Government, Diminished Resources

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pp. 106-133

The relationship between Japan and the United States has given Washington its most important and dependable East Asian partner for over 50 years. Episodic disagreements and the inherent asymmetries in the relationship have not impeded a mutually beneficial security, economic, ...

The Korean Peninsula in U.S. Strategy: Policy Issues for the Next President

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pp. 134-164

This chapter addresses U.S. strategy on the Korean Peninsula and identifies a policy agenda for the next administration. The commitment of South Korea’s new president, Lee Myung-bak, to closer relations with Washington enables the United States to weigh future policy options in ...

Mind the Gap: Russian Ambitions vs. Russian Reality

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pp. 166-196

Russia’s return to the ranks of major powers after nearly two decades of international retreat and domestic turmoil has been one of the key developments in the international arena in recent years. Outsiders have speculated about a return of the Cold War or the emergence of a multipolar ...

Partnering with India:Regional Power, Global Hopes

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pp. 198-228

The end of the Cold War and a two-decade surge in India’s economic growth marked a turning point in India’s strategic approach to the world and relationship with the United States. A similar transformation characterizes the U.S. approach to India. Beginning in the late 1990s the United States ...

Australia: Allied in Transition

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pp. 230-258

Americans looking at Australia tend to see so much that is familiar that they can underestimate the differences. For example, most Australians do not consider democracy promotion an important goal of foreign policy.1 The next U.S. administration will inherit a U.S.-Australia alliance ...

Strategic Asia 2008–09 Regional Studies

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p. 259-259

Southeast Asia: Strategic Diversification in the “Asian Century”

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pp. 260-295

In what has been widely touted as the “Asian century,” the fortunes of Southeast Asia, a relatively less significant subregion of Asia, have improved but remain uncertain. Over the last eight years the strategic landscape in Southeast Asia has been marked by a sense of great uncertainty but also by ...

The Impact of Pakistan’s and Bangladesh’s National Strategies on U.S. Interests

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pp. 296-331

Seven years into Pakistan’s shaky role as the key front-line state in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan, growing tumult inside Pakistan is forcing U.S. attention to the country’s internal dynamics and their implications for U.S. goals. Clear sources of concern for U.S. policymakers include the ...

A Regional Approach to Afghanistan and Its Neighbors

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pp. 332-362

Afghanistan absorbs more money and costs more American lives than any foreign concern except Iraq. Much has been achieved there; much has not. This chapter seeks to answer the question, how can the United States “get it right” in Afghanistan? ...

Strategic Asia 2008–09 Special Studies

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p. 363-363

Asia’s Water Security Crisis:China, India, and the United States

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pp. 364-389

Water security has become one of the great global challenges of the 21st century. In just over half a century, world population has soared from 2.5 billion in 1950 to 6.5 billion in 2007. This population increase has contributed to a doubling of irrigated areas and a tripling of water withdrawals across ...

Military Power Projection in Asia

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pp. 390-420

Major power war in Asia is a mercifully remote possibility today. The two flashpoints remaining from prior wars—the Korean Peninsula and the Taiwan Strait—are contained by a stable structure of mutually understood policy declarations and deterrent military forces. Despite border incursions ...

The Iran Nuclear Challenge:Asian Interests and U.S. Policy Options

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pp. 422-450

The November 2007 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s nuclear activities famously concluded that Iran had “halted its nuclear weapons program” in 2003.1 Less famously, the NIE noted that Iran had continued to expand its capacity to enrich uranium, the most difficult ...

Strategic Asia 2008–09 Indicators

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pp. 451-473

The following twenty pages contain tables and figures drawn from NBR’s Strategic Asia database and its sources. This appendix consists of 23 tables covering: economic growth, economic sectors, R&D, trade, and foreign investment; population size and growth, urbanization ...

About the Contributors

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pp. 475-482

About Strategic Asia

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pp. 483-485

Index

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pp. 487-501