Arms Race in Asia

Word Count (excluding footnote and reference): 2039 Words

BACKGROUND

In the South East Asia-Pacific region, almost all the countries are surrounded or are bordered by the sea (shown in figure below).

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        Keeping in mind the end goal to defend the South East Asia-Pacific nations intrigue, these countries need to keep their sea path open by ensuring that they have world class maritime frameworks and defense capabilities. The submarine gives an impression of being the answer for the most recent naval force munitions stockpile. The magnificence of the submarine is the abilities is to give the Southeast Asia nations a huge force advantage against any others drive that does not have a submarine. This is achievable by the stealth arrangement of the submarine which allows it to monitor or defend the sea lanes discreetly without being noticed.

        After the World War II, Asian nations sought to include submarine into their battling compel yet submarine are greatly costly in acquisition, operation and support, therefore it required a high resistance spending plan. However, in the late twentieth century, with the development in Asia economy, smaller Southeast Asia nations then were able to expand or obtain their submarine armada.

        In recent years, apart from buying the 3rd generation fighter jets, the procurement of submarine by Southeast Asia countries is the most talked about acquisition. China are currently leading the pack of this undersea ability in Asia and for the Southeast Asia nations, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and Vietnam are all expanding their maritime arm control and have made a noteworthy enhancement in the recent years.

Introduction

When one country acquire a new weapon system, does it means that she/he is having “Arms race” with another nation or could it be for other reasons such as trying to maintain “status quo” or due to its requirement in ensuring it could protect its sovereignty. Before moving on to the argument, “Arms Race” meant “involving two or more parties perceiving themselves to being an adversary relationship, who are increasing on improving their armaments at a rapid rate and structuring their respective military postures with a general attention to the past, current and anticipated military and political behavior of the other parties”. ^[1]

        It is extremely dangerous when countries are misled or misinterprets their neighboring country intentions in arms procurement. Over emphasis on the neighbor country intentions will increase the tension of the region and thus have a negative effect on the relationship between the respective regional countries and if one does try to reciprocate the effort by matching, it may be seen as a race.

        Nonetheless,I do not think that the label “arms race” describes Southeast Asia’s spate of arms acquisition. Although there is a steady growth in purchasing military assets in recent years, it is seen to be of replacing the aging fleet of assets or an improvement to the older equipment than an arms race.