Regional Security Structures in Asia (review)

Book Reviews Regional Security Structures in Asia. By Ashok Kapur. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. 198pp. This book makes an important contribution to the literature on the study of Asian international relations. Ashok Kapur adopts a different position on the study of this vast subject by claiming that too much attention has been given in the literature to the Cold War and bipolarity while insufficient emphasis has been put on the notions of regional power formation as well as conflict formation and resolution. The author argues that these and other concepts discussed in the book are essential for studying international relations in Asia. The other concepts include multipolarity as well as global and regional hegemonies. Kapur is interested in understanding the shift from conflict formation to conflict resolution in the context of North Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, particularly with regards to "the major geopolitical pivots which dominate the Asian strategic landscape" (p. 3). These pivots in the post-Cold War era are the Korean peninsula, Taiwan and the South China Sea, the Northwest part of the Indian subcontinent, the Eastern zone of the Indian subcontinent, and the ASEAN region. Rather than adopting a traditional "top-down approach" to the study of Asian international relations, Kapur judiciously uses a "bottom-up" approach that concentrates on regional dynamics and their interactions with international affairs. The author relies on and modifies the works of Barry Buzan on "regional security complexes" and R. Vayrynen on "regional conflict formation" and "regional power and structures". 508 Book Beviews509 Chapters 2, 3 and 4 provide the historical and political context of the book. The second chapter offers an interesting discussion on the growing importance of Asia over the last 500 years, although it is not always clear how it contributes to the claims mentioned above. Chapter 3 is, in contrast, much more relevant to the themes of the book. It examines the evolving international structures in Asia, discussing the declining influence ofthe great powers and the rising power ofregional actors as well as how these changes in the distribution of power may lead towards new bargaining relations. Chapter 4 is a fascinating discussion on the movements of great powers in Asia during the 19th and 20th centuries. Kapur covers a broad geographical area and historical period and makes a series of arguments on the security structures in Asia. Due to space constraints, I will focus on three central ideas and concepts developed in the following chapters, namely, the decline of the great powers in Asia and the rising power of regional actors, the notion of multipolarity, and the ongoing importance of geo-politics. Kapur considers the great powers, Russia and the United States, to be in decline in the Asia-Pacific. Though this is stating the obvious in the case of the former, to make a similar claim with reference to the United States is much more debatable. Kapur develops this argument in Chapter 5 when stating that the United States "cannot alone keep the peace in troublesome regions, it cannot prevent the rise of regional hegemons, it cannot alone manage the ethnic and Islamic battlefields, and it cannot prevent the growth of new international battlefields" (p. 100). The United States needs therefore to cooperate with other actors to pursue its interests, which Kupar regards as an indication of its declining power in the region. Simultaneously, regional powers benefit from "enhanced freedom of action and bargaining opportunities" (p. 41). The argument on the decline of the United States is debatable due to several reasons. First and foremost, U.S. reliance on allies and regional partners to promote its interests should not automatically be viewed as a sign of weakness but simply as a dimension of power politics. In fact, this is how the United States has exercised power successfully in most parts of the world since the end of the Second World War, particularly in Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Moreover, the decline of the United States is an old debate that brings us back to the early 1990s and the consequences ofthe end ofthe Cold War. It was feared at the time that the United States might disengage from the region. Instead, it...