Korea and the US-PRC-USSR Triangle

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe, analyze and evaluate changing patterns of the interests of the U.S., P.R.C. and Soviet Union in Northeast Asia, particularly as they relate to the Korean peninsula. Northeast Asia today contains the greatest concentration of military forces of any comparable region in the world. Within its geographic environs, the interests of two superpowers and one additional nuclear power intersect, as well as those of a economic giant which remains militarily insignificant. The post World War 2 military equilibrium between the uperpowers is now endangered. The relative decline of U.S. power, at both the strategic and conventional levels, raises doubts about the willingness and capability of the United States to meet its commitments and protect its vital interests in Europe and Asia in the force of growing Soviet power and influence. The growth of Soviet military power in Asia and declining U.S. power in the Pacific is one of the great fears of Asian allies. During the previous two decades, United States policy in Asia was basically an extension of the containment strategy originally designed for Europe, based on the assumption that Chinese Communism constituted the same kind of expansionist threat to the security of the non-communist world, and ultimately to the United States, as did communism in its Russian variant. The PRC's perceptions of the security environment in Asia is changing, and there is renewed Chinese interest in the development of a modern military capability adequate to deal with the perceived threat to the security adequated to deal with the perceived threat to security of the PRC. Concern is mounting in Japan over the security situation in Northeast Asia, and there is a growing possibility that in the nea future Japan will decide to substantially augment her military capabilities and to assume a more autonomous political position in the multipolar politics of the region.