A Concert of Asia?

One of the twenty-first century's great challenges will be to fill Asia's security vacuum. The US maintains a heavy military presence and an important set of bilateral security arrangements, and the region's great powers cooperate on an ad hoc basis. But there is no developed security system embraced by Asia- Pacific's leading powers. Meanwhile, the 'Asian way' of consensus-based diplomacy has suffered greatly -- in coherence and prestige -- from the financial crisis which started in 1997. What the region needs is a limited and informal concert, based on the classical principles of European concert diplomacy. Such a framework would satisfy China's quest for enhanced international status, help US efforts to 'engage' China, and address the fear of Japan and Russia being marginalised if the Sino-US relationship develops into a true 'strategic partnership'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]