The disintegration of the former Soviet Union, the end of the cold war and the trend of economic developmental "miracles" in disparate regions of the globe have brought a vast transformation to the political, economic, and security configurations of the world. Gone is the bipolar world of superpower rivalry, replaced by new international patterns and trends.

Nowhere is the transformation more striking than in East and Southeast Asia, the region which includes China, Japan, the "four tigers" of Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan, and the emerging powers of Southeast Asia....