|
[Home
|
National
|
World
|
Perspectives
|
Columns
|
Money
|
Entertainment
|
Health
|
Technology
|
Letters
|
Subscribe] FinalCall.com News - Refer This Page World News WASHINGTON (IPS/GIN) - The prospects of integrating North Korea into the international community and constructing a peace and security structure for Northeast Asia are looking rosier, given the latest diplomatic breakthrough with the U.S. But the headlines about how the United States and North Korea have narrowed their differences over the declaration of the latter’s nuclear program are undoubtedly deceptive. Despite all the talk of peace in the current Six-Party Talks, the military trends in the region tell a very different story. Even though it looks relatively peaceful on the outside, Northeast Asia is in fact at the heart of the global military-industrial complex. The armies that confront each other in this region—the United States, Russia, China, Japan and the two Koreas—are the largest in the world. They are responsible for at least 65 percent of the world’s military spending. Not only is Northeast Asia one of the most heavily militarized regions of the world, it is also currently in the middle of a major arms race. Five of the six countries in the negotiations to shut down North Korea’s nuclear program have increased their military spending by 50 percent or more in the last five years. Recent events are only making matters worse. The cold war is heating up again on the Korean peninsula in the wake of conservative Lee Myung Bak’s inauguration as South Korea’s new president. China is desperately trying to put out fires on its periphery, from Tibet to Xinjiang. And nationalist politicians in Japan are pushing for an end to the country’s peace constitution. Northeast Asia’s arms race, which has been largely hidden from view, is threatening to break into the open. The most paradoxical part of this arms race is in Korea itself. Although the two halves of the peninsula have established joint ventures, tourism projects and numerous cultural exchanges over the last decade, both sides continue to spend copious amounts on their militaries. South Korean presidents Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun touted their engagement policies with the North. But between 1999 and 2006, South Korean military spending jumped more than 70 percent. In 2007, South Korea launched its first Aegis-equipped destroyer and announced a plan to build three more at a cost of $1.0 billion each by 2020. The new South Korean president Lee Myung Bak has supported this vision of a new blue water navy, and South Korean military spending will go up by an estimated 10 percent a year through 2020. Although it spends anywhere from one-quarter to one-third of its entire GDP on the military, North Korea can’t keep up with the South, which spends as much, or more, on its military than the North’s entire gross domestic product. The decline of North Korea’s economy has undermined its conventional military posture, which is one reason why Pyongyang opted for a nuclear program in the first place. In other words, the current nuclear crisis in Northeast Asia today is at least partly a result of the region’s accelerating conventional arms race and North Korea’s inability to keep pace. This approach of “peace through strength” on the Korean peninsula owes a great deal to the policies of the most powerful military force in the region. The United States, responsible for nearly 50 percent of all global military expenditures, is the prime mover of the arms race regionally and internationally. The George W. Bush administration has increased military spending by 74 percent since 2001. A sizable portion of the $607 billion Pentagon budget request for 2009, which doesn’t even include the supplemental funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, will go to maintaining and expanding the U.S. military presence in the Pacific. And none of the leading presidential candidates has recommended freezing, much less reducing, U.S. military outlays. The big-ticket items in next year’s budget—the CVN-78 Advanced Aircraft Carrier and the DDG-1000 Zumwalt-Class Destroyer—are of little use in fighting terrorism. The Pentagon’s long-range plan to build a 313-ship navy is apparently meant to counter the only potential great power that the United States sees on the horizon: China. China is spending around $50 billion a year on its military. But if U.S. estimates are correct, China’s actual defense budget is closer to $120 billion, which makes it the No. 2 military spender in the world. With this money, China is pushing forward with an ambitious naval program that will include the addition of five new nuclear-powered attack subs and a mid-sized aircraft carrier. China is also modernizing its air force with an upgrade of fighters, tanker aircraft and transport planes. Even with this modernization program, however, China’s military pales in comparison to U.S. forces in the Pacific region and makes no attempt to rival U.S. global reach.
|