Explaining the East Asian Peace: A Research Story.

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Author: Rolfe, Jim
• Date: 01 December 2017

Explaining the East Asian Peace: A Research Story. By Stein Tonneson. Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2017. Softcover: 263pp.

The standard trope in any discussion about East Asian security over recent decades has been on the uncertainty of the security environment, generally followed by the assertion that we live in dangerous times. And there has indeed been much uncertainty and some dangerous times. Stein Tonneson's book, however, moves away somewhat from the uncertainty and the danger and instead examines the (relative) peace which the region has enjoyed over the last three decades or so. In the eyes of the author--programme leader for a large and experienced international team hosted by the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University in Sweden--this is a much more interesting topic than asking the more normal question: "Why conflict and what causes it?"

In four parts, chapters really, Tonneson asks and answers, from his point of view, the big questions: How do we explain the region's generally peaceful nature? What should we make of China? Is the peace viable? and What could the future hold? Running through these issues is discussion of a six-year research programme at Uppsala in which the different perspectives...