The diplomats, military officers, journalists and academics who gathered in Singapore for Asia’s premier annual forum on security issues and defense diplomacy on May 30 witnessed an extraordinary display of regional jousting.

In years to come, perhaps the 2014 Shangri-La Dialogue, as the annual event is known, will be seen as just a temporary spike in tensions between the region’s major powers. On the other hand, the gathering could mark the moment when those powers entered a new era of competition and confrontation. While growing antagonism between regional players has been evident for some years, the diplomatic veil was lifted at the Singapore gathering. Subtext became text.

… As veteran Asian security commentator Barry Desker, Dean of Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies remarked, there was a definite “Cold War tone” to the speeches made by representatives of the key powers.