Changing Global Trends and Their Effects on the Asia—Pacific

This article broadly surveys the thawing of the various cold war relationships since 1989 and seeks to account for the trends underlining these international changes. The effects of various developments, such as the change in superpower relations and the emergence of multipolarity, the shifts from geopolitics to geoeconomics, the decline of ideological affiliations, the democratization tendencies, and the persistence of regional disorder are discussed in turn. The impact and implications of such international changes upon the security environment of the Asia—Pacific, including ASEAN, are finally highlighted.