US-China Relations and Nuclear Weapons in Northeast Asia

ABSTRACT If Northeast Asia is to have a nuclear weapons-free future, the United States and China must cooperate to make it happen. Unfortunately, decision-makers in both nuclear-armed states are preparing for a future military conflict and are upgrading their nuclear arsenals. In the United States, decision-makers are dependent on a cadre of security bureaucrats who circumscribe acceptable policy options. A review of the past and the present shows that the orthodox policies produced by these bureaucrats failed to resolve longstanding security problems in Northeast Asia: problems that decision-makers try to keep at bay with threats and preparations to use nuclear weapons. If US decision-makers were willing to see that history through Chinese eyes, with the aim of understanding how it influences Chinese decisions and actions in the present, the prospects for a nuclear-free future in Northeast Asia might be brighter.