Fire in the East: The Rise of Asian Military Power and the Second Nuclear Age

Paul Bracken the author and professor of management and political science at Yale University has written a quixotic book on Asia. He goes into the history, psyche and challenges of an Asia full of regional and world competition just starting to bud. It seems the author points out that Asian nations are no longer content in simply trading and developing markets. Apparently, they are following the folly of western nations by building up their military and nuclear power as if that will lead to unfeigned independence. This is happening exactly at the time when the world is growing ever more interdependent. Consequently, unless Asian powers change they are set on a course that can actually disrupt the glorious economic miracles they have been creating just as Europe did in 1914 and 1939 with two World Wars. It seems David Gruen, (better known as David Ben Gurion), Israel's first Prime Minster quote in 1965 has more significance today when he said, "Our Future Lies In Asia, Even If Our Way of Life Is Modeled On Europe...Israel Stands At The Gateway To Asia". What David Ben Gurion knew is what the world is finding out, Asia is coming onto the world scene and the world is going to change too! The author outlines these observation in his book with documentation from yesterday and today. I highly recommend this superb book by this distinguished visionary and author.

"Fire in the East" is a clear, readable essay on the increasingly complex and volitile Asian military threat. This book should be required reading for those policy makers in Washington who seem to view the security of U.S. interests abroad, and our previously untouchable position at home, as a God-given, undeniable right. The reality, as Mr. Bracken has shown, is that our nation is moving forward into an increasingly uncertain and potentially dangerous world where NOTHING is guaranteed. Failure to adapt to this new environment will lead to an undesirable outcome in future Asian politics. Well done.

DON'T be misled by the title of the book. It is not 'merely' about how the spread of weapons of mass destruction into nearly a dozen Asian countries and the decline of the West and the United States are inexorably changing the strategic landscape of the vast landmass between Mediterranean on the west and the Pacific on the east. Paul Bracken, the author, has succeeded in analysing the fundamental changes in Asian military balance and their consequences in a broader historical context of half a millennium. For example, in discussing India's nuclear tests in May 1998, Bracken reminds his readers of what had happened that month five hundred years ago: Vasco da Gama reached India in May 1498. While da Gama's visit heralded India's subjugation by the European colonial powers, last year's nuclear tests proclaimed India's determination 'never' to lose its independence. But the same sentiment, legitimate though it is, is driving a dozen Asian countries to acquire weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical and biological weapons) and ballistic missiles. With the ability of many countries to hit hitherto far away countries, the Asian geography has shrunk to such an extent where traditional grouping of countries into regions (South Asia, East Asia, etc) hardly makes sense. Thus, the 'death of distance' means that the traditional way of looking at peace and stability, too, is no longer valid. In order to be able to hit the continental US, the Soviet Union had to deploy nuclear missiles in Cuba, which led to a crisis in 1962. What it failed to do in Cuba, the Soviet Union succeeded in doing through the development of long-range missiles. Overnight the two super powers became next door neighbours to each other. In 1998, by firing missiles across Japan, North Korea "turned the Japanese archipelago from a zone of sanctuary into a target zone..."Moreover, "the ballistic missile has empowered pawns to check the dominant powers; countries that were once pawns now have the reach of knights and bishops". The new power and status of the Asian pawns are almost coinciding with the emergence of Asia-Pacific as the new power house of world economy. Hopefully, the present South East Asian financial crisis is just an aberration or an interlude. Bracken draws several pertinent analogies to explain how all the new developments in Asia fall into a historical pattern. When Europe fought the Thirty Years War in the 17th century, rest of the world remained unaffected. But the Industrial Revolution made Europe rich, powerful militarily and to acquire colonies. Thus, its later wars became everybody's wars. His conclusion is that Asia, too, is "going through a comparable transformation". Throughout, the author proceeds with a bold assumption that the conditions that had led to Asia's decline and colonial subjugation have changed for the better.There is something 'disruptive' about Asian resurgence. Bracken terms the weapons of mass dest

This book is a fast and provocative read for any person interested in the future of international relations and national security - especially for Americans, but for anyone, anywhere in the world. It makes a compelling argument that Americans must wake up to the fact that the different ways of thinking of the civilizations found in Asia will significantly and dramatically impact us in ways we will not anticipate unless we educate ourselves about the nation-states of Asia, their technological knowledge level, their values and their thought processes. Americans, and Europeans, for that matter, need to become aware that other ways of thinking than those to which we are most accustomed will have a greater impact on our security and our own civilization in the next centurey. I am living in Asia at the moment, and the analysis rings very true. Anyone concerned about international relations or national security, or about the future of American civilization, should read this book.

Bracken challenges all of the conventional assumptions surrounding US security policy in East Asia, and backs it up with brilliant insights. Always creative and thought-provoking, he leads you through a critical analyis of the era after the end of the cold war, in the region where we have fought three wars this century.