October 01, 2014
An "App" For Peace?: Technology's Role in Asia’s Balance of Power
Asian geopolitics needs tech solutions to help manage the shifting regional balance of power and prevent war.
For the past generation, Asia has known greater peace for a longer period than many expected. Sure, policy wonks worry about a North Korea collapse, a regional nuclear arms race, or conflict in the South China Sea, but that’s their jobs. At any rate, none of these nightmare scenarios have occurred, so what’s to worry about? Admittedly, Asian security’s had a pretty good run to date. But as every investor knows, past performance is not necessarily indicative of future performance.
The “Asian peace” has been possible because of region-wide attentiveness to geopolitics. Traditional sources of conflict among nations, such as arms races or conflict spirals, have been avoided through a combination of regional diplomacy, deterrence, and U.S. security commitments…not to mention a general desire to avoid war on the part of Asian civil societies.