The prospect of arms control in Northeast Asia: A contextual, procedural, and perceptual approach

There are two main objectives of this thesis: one is to assess the prospect for arms control in Northeast Asia and to provide some relevant thoughts on the ways which arms control can be successfully introduced and implemented. The other is to test modern arms control theory developed in the West in a different security environment and in a different strategic/defense culture.;There are four arms control issues covered in this thesis: nuclear proliferation, Sino-Soviet arms control, Korean arms control, and naval arms control. A state's behavior in arms control, its posture toward arms control, and its selection of arms control measures are influenced not only by contextual security environment and procedural matters but also by perceptual factors. Each nation has a different perceptual understanding of security, conditions of peace and stability, and its selection of the instruments for the achievement of security objectives. Strategic/defense culture refers to the elite's perception of the fundamental and enduring components of defense policy through which problems of current defense policy are filtered and refracted, and through which an appropriate means for achieving security objectives is selected. It is necessary to incorporate strategic/defense culture as an intervening variable in the study of arms control. A state with its own strategic/defense culture will pursue a distinctive path in arms control which corresponds to its own strategic/defense culture.