Could the East Asian Way of Peacekeeping Be a Recipe for Global Peace?

Abstract

This paper offers new evidence in support of an argument that suggests that East Asian way of keeping peace is developmentalist, anti-interventionist and anti-hegemonic and thus even more different from the existing Western prescriptions for peace than realized before. This argument is based on some new data on organized violence, conflict termination and discourses of protection and security and a comparison of current East Asia with other regions, and with its performance three decades before 1980. The article also investigates whether the East Asian recipes for peace and prosperity could offer global prescriptions. Again, based on data on global fatalities of organized violence, the conclusion is clear. The world could learn from East Asia: the recipes the long peace of East Asia is based on, as defined in this article, can be found useful also to the entire world.