Asia & the Pacific

Based on field research, this chapter explores the motivations and objectives of the Afghan Taliban, and in light of this, it assesses the feasibility, risks, and implications of negotiations to resolve the conflict.

This study assesses current U.S. policy options on the Iranian nuclear question. It suggests that U.S. goals can be met through patient and forward-looking policymaking. Specifically, the United States can begin to lay the groundwork for an effective containment policy while continuing efforts to forestall Iranian weaponization. A successful containment policy will promote long-term positive political change in Iran while avoiding counterproductive provocation.

This chapter examines the relationship between security assurances and North Korean nuclear decision-making by focusing on four key areas: key geopolitical shocks that had a major impact on the North Korean regime; main sources of security assurances for North Korea over its history; this volume's hypotheses on security assurances based on how North Korea reacted to geopolitical shocks; and conditions under which security assurances may be most effective in dealing with North Korea in the future.

"In the twenty-first century, the United States and China are destined to be the largest and strongest powers in the international system. China's rise has been proclaimed to be "peaceful," but in a prior century the American rise was scarcely pacific. The United States threatened war with Canada and Britain and actuallt fought against Mexico, annexing nearly half of that country in 1848. China was also vigilant and quick to react in its neighborhood. as U.S. forces neared the Yalu River in October 1950, China intervened in the Korean War, even though the United States possessed nuclear weapons and beijing did not. Neither state has been relaxed in the presence of challenging neighbors."

"Globalization has the effect of incapacitating states as autonomous units."

"...the United States still has an interest in retaining the good wishes of most other countries, if only because its ability to accomplish positive ends will decline if other states are resentful or fearful...."

Chapter in Janne E. Nolan's book "Global Engagement: Cooperation and Security in the 21st Century"

In the shrinking arms market of the post-Cold War era, countries with advanced arms industries face difficult choices concerning force size, arms production, arms export, and defense industrial capacity. This book explores the links among these issues through a detailed study of the combat aircraft industries in the United States, Russia, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Sweden--the seven countries that develop, produce, and export all of the world's technologically advanced weapon systems.

The studies show how military strategy, planned forces, and the age of systems in the current inventory affect the domestic demand for new production; how the recent drop in domestic demand affects arms industries; and the extent to which governments and firms in the arms-producing nations are turning to exports to sustain the industries.

Book by Ashton B. Carter, Kurt M. Campbell, Steven E. Miller, and Charles Zraket

"The most important book by any ex-Clinton official."



-Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times (April 16, 1999)