China's Strategic Development in the Asia-Pacific

The theme of the 2012-2013 Strategic Yearbook is the emerging global security environment. In the domain of high politics the relative power of the western world is declining, as the world's leading actors are becoming more numerous and more diverse. A greater share of the world's societies is empowered to participate in global governance. On the other hand, multilateral politics is becoming more difficult due to the growing economic and ecological challenges. The current economic crisis in developed states is leading to decades of austerity and structural reforms. However, humanity has never before generated so much economic, technological and scientific power as today. This gives us resources to address the social and ecological challenges. On the negative side is the fragility of these flows. Where are we ultimately heading to? The expert contributions to this book examine these and other issues of the changing global security environment. This is the tenth edition of the Strategic Yearbook, a series published by the Department of Security, Strategy and Leadership at the Swedish National Defence College in cooperation with the Finnish National Defence University. The purpose of this series is to contribute to the field of strategic studies and to a candid and pertinent public debate on current security issues.