In East Asia, previous conflicts have had a strong element of external superpower intervention in accordance with the Cold War pattern. This situation is now changing quite dramatically, and more traditional rivalries are resurging, more similar to a 19th century Europe-type situation. The larger Asia-Pacific "region" was most affected by the Cold War, and the recent lifting of the superpower overlay therefore has created a vacuum of great uncertainty in the security field. Several powers have more or less open regional ambitions, which must be related to turbulent and highly unpredictable...

In an imaginative and interesting way, Kwang Ho Chun seeks to capture the dynamics of the changing international system and the prospects for a change in the international distribution of power. The idea that new superpowers could rise and that some of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) could be such superpowers, is particularly intriguing and the main idea explored in this study. In line with neo-realist approaches, this book argues that in a unipolar world competitors will rise to challenge the global hegemon. As the power profiles of the BRICs rise and they gain greater control of...

In an imaginative and interesting way, Kwang Ho Chun seeks to capture the dynamics of the changing international system and the prospects for a change in the international distribution of power. The idea that new superpowers could rise and that some of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) could be such superpowers, is particularly intriguing and the main idea explored in this study. In line with neo-realist approaches, this book argues that in a unipolar world competitors will rise to challenge the global hegemon. As the power profiles of the BRICs rise and they gain greater control...