Changing Security Dynamics in East Asia: A Post-US Regional Order in the Making?

• Author: Salleh, Nur'Asyura
• Position: Book review

Changing Security Dynamics in East Asia: A Post-US Regional Order in the Making? Edited by Elena Atanassova-Cornelis and Frans-Paul van der Putten. Hampshire, England, and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. Hardcover: 228pp.

This engaging volume compiles expert perspectives that focus on how the strategic uncertainty surrounding the future of America's security commitment to East Asia shapes the security dynamics of the region against the backdrop of China's growing influence. This discussion is timely, as the region responds to China's current power projection strategies, including the "One Belt, One Road Initiative". Derived from a panel discussion at a conference, this edited volume provides a theoretically informed debate on how strategic uncertainty informs the behaviour and perceptions of East Asian states and analyses the mechanisms used to respond to it.

Throughout the book, the authors consistently link China's rise to the strategic uncertainty of US security commitments to discuss how this impacts the security behaviour of East Asian countries. The book is divided into three parts. The first part tackles broad theoretical, historical and contemporary approaches to understanding East Asia's security dynamics. This is followed by individual studies on the impact of strategic uncertainty on the security behaviour of states in Northeast and Southeast Asia. The book's real contribution to the literature on East Asian politics and US-China relations can be found in the last section. Here, the authors discuss alternative regional models of order increasingly being used by East Asian countries to jointly manage strategic uncertainty. This forces readers to contemplate the possibility of a post-US regional order in which China is the paramount power.

The book's overview of East Asia's security order skillfully avoids a factual rendition of the region's strategic history and instead analytically exposes the layers of uncertainty and complexity inherent in the region. Nick Bisley scrutinizes the utility of three theoretical frameworks used in conceptualizing East Asia's security order: realism, hegemonic and hierarchical approaches, and liberal and analytical eclecticism perspectives. From this, Bisley uncovers wide theoretical divergences among regional scholars. Although this theoretical diversity may lead "policymakers to feel as if they have little to guide them when trying to understand and respond to Asia's dynamic security...