Perspectives on Creating a Security Regime in Northeast Asia

Northeast Asian stability depends on the self-interested calculation of regional actors, whose interests mostly converge in the military denuclearization of North Korea. Until now, the Northeast Asian actors have not been able to coordinate policies that might achieve regional stability. Each country maintains its own security dilemma, complicating the chances of an agreement. The basic function of regimes in an anarchic international system is to coordinate state behavior to achieve desired outcomes in particular issue-areas. A security regime regulates superpower relations and devises appropriate measures to ensure a collective security framework. Any international regime depends on each actor’s expectations to benefit from the agreement. In Northeast Asia, both superpowers (China and the United States) want a stable Korean Peninsula that favors the status quo. North Korea’s unilateral decisions alter the regional balance of powers, complicating the Sino-us relations and threatening directly Japan’s and South Korea’s security. So far the intended non-proliferation regime has not achieved regional stability. This article seeks to answer whether a limited-proliferation security regime could ensure stability in Northeast Asia and to expose North Korea as the main obstacle to achieve regional stability