This report responds to the Fiscal Year 1999 National Defense Authorization Act which directs the Secretary of Defense to carry out a study of the architecture requirements for the establishment and operation of theater ballistic missile defense (TBMD) systems for Japan the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Taiwan that would provide for their defense against limited theater ballistic missile attacks. This report is not intended to discuss the overall development and production issues surrounding TBMD. Likewise, it does not discuss the criteria for arms transfers generally nor any particular issues surrounding transfers to Japan, ROK, or Taiwan. Finally, this report does not provide a comprehensive analysis of theater missile defenses in the Asia-Pacific region. Instead, as requested by Congress, it provides an overview of various TBMD architecture options, which could become available early in the next century. The defense of Japan, the ROK, and Taiwan against ballistic missile attacks is a complex topic and requires substantial in-depth analysis before definitive conclusions can be drawn. The goal of this report is to describe illustrative architecture options for Japan, the ROK, and Taiwan based on each one's unique political and military threat environments.

"US policy choices toward TMD in the Asia-Pacific region must be acutely mindful of the pitfalls associated with missile defense deployments, but they must also be responsive to the growing ballistic missile threats in the region. A simplistic, "one-size-fits-all" policy for TMD would worsen regional security and harm US national security interests"--Web site

As East Asia is entering the 21st Century, Japan, in reassessing its security environment and thus its strategic calculus, is on the verge of deploying latest jointly-researched theater missile defenses (TMD) to counter the threat of ballistic and cruise missiles. In parallel, the People's Republic of China is constantly modernizing its ballistic missile forces and is gearing up for a possible contingency with its self-proclaimed "high-tech adversaries". This work shows what drives Japan to deploy theater missile defenses and how the People's Republic of China is poised to be reacting to it.

In this book, Michael Krepon analyzes nuclear issues such as missile defenses, space warfare, and treaties, and argues that the United States is on a dangerous course. During the Cold War, Mutual Assured Destruction, or MAD, facilitated strategic arms control. Now that the Cold War has been replaced by asymmetric warfare, treaties based on nuclear overkill and national vulnerability are outdated and must be adapted to a far different world. A new strategic concept of Cooperative Threat Reduction is needed to replace MAD. A balance is needed that combines military might with strengthened treaty regimes.

Recent concern about mainland China's intentions towards Taiwan, and more general concern about the risk of instability in the region, has led to growing interest in Taiwan's military strategy, in how Taiwan perceives threats to itself, and in how the Taiwanese military are reacting to these perceived threats. This book, which includes contributions by leading Taiwanese military thinkers, explores current military strategy in Taiwan and how it is evolving. It discusses Taiwan's military modernisation, and the implications of the recent defeat after fifty years in power of the Kuomintang Party, implications which include a move away from an authoritarian garrison state culture, and the beginnings of a more open debate about defence. The book concludes with an overall appraisal of Taiwan's defence vision and makes recommendations on how Taiwan's defence might be enhanced.

In this book William Durch examines conventional weapons proliferation since World War II, the role of arms transfers in fueling regional conflict, and prospects for curbing the global arms trade. Noting that supply side arms control efforts, which seek to constrain the companies and countries that produce and distribute major conventional weapons, have a poor international track record, Durch argues for a broader approach that tries to get at the demand side of the equation. Addressing the political and regional dynamics that impel arms acquisitions, he looks at how arms control might be combined with confidence and security-building measures to contain demand, and how value-based arms trade control measures like 'codes of conduct' could be implemented in stepwise fashion consistent with US national interests in regional stability.

'Normalizing Japan' discusses the future direction Japan's military policies are likely to take by considering how policy has evolved since the Second World War, and what factors shaped this evolution.