THE UMBRELLA POLITICS - DEBALINA CHATTERJEE

In 1949, the nuclear umbrella was provided to NATO by the US to “protect against the perceived military threats of the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc countries”.18 For the United States, Asia was in its list of regions of strategic importance only when the dragon became a Communist state and the Americans feared Communist expansionism in Asia. [...] Since the end of the Cold War, the Chinese have been cautiously pursuing a strategy of expanding their own power and influence and, at the same time, trying to undermine and diminish the power and influence of the United States. [...] In 1980, Korea signed a memorandum of understanding with the United States government to purchase the F/A-18s, and in 1991, decided to procure the F-16s.21 Provision of the security umbrella to Australia under the Australia, New Zealand, United States (ANZUS) Treaty since 1981 had provided the United States a stopover for US Air Force (USAF) B-52 bombers at Darwin in the Northern Territory when th. [...] North Korea insists on self-reliance, thereby rejecting any scope for dependency, and laying stress on nuclear arms.51 The mission of the nuclear forces of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is to “deter and repel aggression and attack against the country and the nation until the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and the world is realized”.52 North Korea maintains a policy of. [...] Hence, the United States would need to reassure its allies that in case of zero nuclear weapons in the world, the reconstitution of US nuclear forces can take place in a “timely way”.83 From a neo-realist perspective, with the prevalence of the Hobbesian system, states would never be completely confident about the willingness of a foreign state to come to their aid in an emergency, unless it serve.