The Military Balance

For nearly a quarter-century the military balance in the Pacific rested on the clearly perceived parameters of the cold war, namely parallel Soviet and Chinese anti-imperialism and American containment policies which compelled the smaller states to align themselves with one or other of the opposing blocs. One of the more beneficial Nixon shocks reopened the traditional American 'Open Door* policy toward China. This single move granted the United States important diplomatic initiative in the Far East, shifted the fulcrum of political and military attention from southeast Asia to the northwest Pacific, and destroyed the main pillar of Moscow's Asian policy which rested on indefinite ChineseAmerican animosity. This realignment of the Pacific power configuration also raised fundamental questions about the future military balance in this theatre. The purpose of this essay is to analyse the present military postures of the principal actors and to develop several questions about future problems. An assessment of comparative military strengths and strategies must be predicated upon presumptions of political policy and orientation. Let us turn first therefore to some assumptions about the political Dositions of the various national actors in the Pacific region

Balance (ability · China · Cold war · Foreign policy · Great power · International relations · Physical medicine and rehabilitation · Pillar · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Principal (computer security · Sociology · Defense, Military, and Policy Studies · Engineering · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Medicine · Military and Defense Studies · Military History and Strategy