Asian Defence Review 2006

The dawn of the new millennium started to shed light on the world affairs making it clear under the new brightness what many people had been arguing for long: that the 21st century was going to be an Asian century; and the "rise" of China and India would be a major factor in this process. This would inevitably present new challenges and opportunities. At the same time as well as geopolitical imperatives, not to talk of nuclear weapons spread, military power has reached a paradoxical position of having become far more capable and effective at one level, while it also appears to be less usable in traditional ways. The complexities arising of these paradoxes require continuing and deeper study and understanding of the development related defence and military power. The Asian continent is currently experiencing numerous wars and armed conflicts, and competition for energy resources is accelerating while the extremist religion-driven terrorism shows no sign of abating or being brought under control. Fragility of many of Asian states poses serious challenges to future peace and security. Both the rising powers, china and India, require a prolonged period of peace to devote their full energies to human development of their huge population; and others need peace and security to progress toward a better life for their people. This requires deeper understanding of key issues affecting peace and security in Asia where defence and military factors remain the ultimate arbiters of human affairs. This volume, a resource base for the professional and the general reader, is the forerunner of the series of annual publication of the Centre for Air Power Studies under this title, which aims to fill a critical information and knowledge gap in current strategic literature dealing with military strategy, defence policies and trends in military capabilities that impact countries in Asia. In particular it covers some of the important areas that affect Asian countries and the developments in Asian countries with a focus on China, India and Pakistan to provide the requisite regional balance.