A New Arms Race in the Asia-Pacific?

Abstract

Many countries in the Asia-Pacific, enabled by rising defence budgets and aggressive marketing by major arms-producing states, have since the middle of the 1990s greatly expanded their war fighting capacities beyond the mere modernisation of their armed forces. While such purchases are intended to aid deterrence and defence, they may have the unintended consequences of undermining regional security and stability by contributing to arms races or arms competitions leading to a classical ‘security dilemma’.

Notes

¹T. Moss, “The Asian Space Race”, Jane's Defence Weekly, 23 October 2008.

²Rumours also persist that the PLA Navy will add at least one aircraft carrier to its fleet by 2015–2020. Bitzinger and Mitchell, China's Aspirations to Acquire an Aircraft Carrier. See also the article in this issue by Ding, 95.

³Bitzinger, US Defence Transformation, 12–15.

⁴For example, Malaysia bought Su-30 Flankers following Singapore's decision to purchase the F-15.

⁵For example, in the early 1990s, the Thai government bought a small aircraft carrier for the Thai navy in return for it not supporting an earlier military coup.

⁶“Chapter IX: Defence Expenditure”. China's National Defence in 2006, http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/book/194421.htm

⁷“10 per cent Hike in Indian Defence Budget for 2008-09”, IndiaDefence (online), 2 March 2008. http://www.india-defence.com/reports-3759.

⁸V. Raghuvanshi, “India Launches First Defence Investment Fund”, Defence News, 7 July 2008, 46.

⁹Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. “The SIPRI Military Expenditure Database” (2008), http://milexdata.sipri.org.

¹⁰“Taiwan Plans Big Increase in Defence Spending”, International Herald Tribune, 23 August 2007.

¹¹For example, Japan and South Korea are both acquiring the Aegis naval sensor and combat system, which could enable their ships to link up with US naval forces in cooperative engagements against opposing forces, or, as in the case of Japan, permit these nations to work with the United States in developing and deploying ship-based missile defences.

¹²Bitzinger and Desker, “Why East Asian War is Unlikely”.