Abstract

The paper highlights four key aspects of the new security dimensions in the Asia Pacific. First, the U.S. role in the Asia Pacific is changing. While the U.S. will remain a major player in the Asia Pacific, it will no longer be the 800 pound gorilla in the region and will have to handle the emerging ambitions of a rising China, which could play the role of a regional challenger. Secondly, the states of the region, including the members of ASEAN and Australia, will have to deal with the rise of China. Thirdly, the rise of China is being accompanied by growing Sino-Japanese tensions which need to be managed, the parallel rise of India (which could pose a strategic challenge to China) and the articulation of Chinese norms and Values embodied in the Beijing Consensus which is challenging the Washington Consensus of Western norms and values, which has shaped international institutions since the end of the Cold War. Fourthly, Asia’s security architecture is undergoing profound changes and a closer examination of the new overlapping regional multilateral institutions in the Asia Pacific is warranted. The paper concludes by discussing the implications for Australia, before suggesting possible implications of these developments for policy-oriented research centres of international affairs.

The paper argues that because of the strategic and economic significance of China, it is imperative that China becomes a critical player in the incipient web of regional mulilateral institutions which is being created in the Asia Pacific. Australia and other states of the region need to engage China through these institutions. As China participates in these institutions, China is being socialised and influenced by the norms and values of these structures, even as China’s own values and disposition shapes these institutions. The paper raises the question whether these is an emerging clash of values between the norms advocated by the United States, the hegemonic power in the region since the Second World War, and those advocated by China, or whether it is possible for us to have a synthesis reflecting a marriage of American and Chinese values.