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Security threats in Asia fast become issues for the rest of the world. This introductory and wide-ranging text on the subject takes a thematic approach to assess how localized security issues - from territorial rivalry to the rise of China - materialize as 'ripple effects' across the whole region

Offering a comprehensive account of the work of Hedley Bull, Ayson analyses the breadth of Bull's work as a Foreign Office official for Harold Wilson's government, the complexity of his views, including Bull's unpublished papers, and challenges some of the comfortable assertions about Bull's place in the English School of IR

Hedley Bull (1932-1985) was one of the most forceful thinkers of international politics in recent generations. His depictions of an international society where nation-states find order without a world government continue to resonate. But until now, the importance of Bull's earlier and broader thinking has often been neglected. Based on Bull's published and unpublished work throughout his career, and his experiences in Australia as well as in Oxford and London, this uniquely comprehensive account brings together these many components. What emerges is the story of a scholar and one-time official whose work on nuclear strategy shaped his international theory, and whose study of Asia's changing balance and the third world informed his argument that rising powers had to be accommodated. Bull often saw these changes as little more than accidents of history, but the established powers needed to come to terms with them if the world was to be an orderly place.

This book provides an insight into the work of Thomas Schelling, one of the most influential strategic thinkers of the nuclear age, and into the intellectual history which underpins classical thinking on nuclear strategy and arms control.

As Asia's influence grows, it becomes increasingly important to understand its regional security challenges. The rise of China and, increasingly, India, coupled with US relations with allies, partners and adversaries in the area, push the implications of Asia's security far and wide. Asia's Security provides a sophisticated and lively account of the region's leading security issues. Chapters organised around thematic questions identify the particular security challenges facing individual countries and illuminate opportunities for collaborative responses, from military alliances to multilateral cooperation. The wide range of security factors examined includes major power rivalry and the possibility of interstate conflict, territorial disputes and the role of nationalism, internal conflict, insurgencies and intervention, transnational challenges from terrorism to climate change, and nuclear proliferation, maritime arms competition and cyber-security. Contemporary in focus, historically grounded and comprehensive in scope - incorporating coverage of North and Southeast Asia, South and Central Asia and the South Pacific - this book explains the security developments most likely to ripple out across Asia, its borderlands and beyond.

The proposition that Australia faces an 'arc of instability' to its north has been an important feature of the Australian strategic debate in the early twenty-first century. Prompted by worries in the late 1990s over Indonesia's future and East Timor's uncertain path to independence, the 'arc' metaphor also encapsulated growing Australian concerns about the political cohesiveness of Melanesian polities, including Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. While tending to overlook the divergent experiences of countries within its expanding boundaries, the 'arc' fed from Australia's historical requirement for a secure archipelagic screen. As such it has became an important weapon in the debate over whether the locus of Australia's strategic priorities should be increasingly global in the 'war on terror' period or remain closer to home in the immediate region. The 'arc of instability' metaphor was consequently adopted by leading Australian Labor Party politicians to argue that the Howard Coalition government was neglecting South Pacific security challenges. It became less prominent following the Howard government's greater activism in the South Pacific, signalled by Australia's leadership of the East Timor intervention in 2003. But its prominence returned in 2006 with the unrest in both Honiara and Dili. In overall terms, the 'arc of instability' discussion has helped direct Australian strategic and political attention to the immediate neighbourhood. But it has not provided specific policy guidance on what should be done to address the instabilities it includes.

As Asia's influence grows, it becomes increasingly important to understand its regional security challenges. The rise of China and, increasingly, India, coupled with US relations with allies, partners and adversaries in the area, push the implications of Asia's security far and wide. Asia's Security provides a sophisticated and lively account of the region's leading security issues. Chapters organised around thematic questions identify the particular security challenges facing individual countries and illuminate opportunities for collaborative responses, from military alliances to multilateral cooperation. The wide range of security factors examined includes major power rivalry and the possibility of interstate conflict, territorial disputes and the role of nationalism, internal conflict, insurgencies and intervention, transnational challenges from terrorism to climate change, and nuclear proliferation, maritime arms competition and cyber-security. Contemporary in focus, historically grounded and comprehensive in scope - incorporating coverage of North and Southeast Asia, South and Central Asia and the South Pacific - this book explains the security developments most likely to ripple out across Asia, its borderlands and beyond.

The proposition that Australia faces an 'arc of instability' to its north has been an important feature of the Australian strategic debate in the early twenty-first century. Prompted by worries in the late 1990s over Indonesia's future and East Timor's uncertain path to independence, the 'arc' metaphor also encapsulated growing Australian concerns about the political cohesiveness of Melanesian polities, including Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. While tending to overlook the divergent experiences of countries within its expanding boundaries, the 'arc' fed from Australia's historical requirement for a secure archipelagic screen. As such it has became an important weapon in the debate over whether the locus of Australia's strategic priorities should be increasingly global in the 'war on terror' period or remain closer to home in the immediate region. The 'arc of instability' metaphor was consequently adopted by leading Australian Labor Party politicians to argue that the Howard Coalition government was neglecting South Pacific security challenges. It became less prominent following the Howard government's greater activism in the South Pacific, signalled by Australia's leadership of the East Timor intervention in 2003. But its prominence returned in 2006 with the unrest in both Honiara and Dili. In overall terms, the 'arc of instability' discussion has helped direct Australian strategic and political attention to the immediate neighbourhood. But it has not provided specific policy guidance on what should be done to address the instabilities it includes.