It is widely argued that the center of gravity of world affairs is shifting from the Atlantic to the Asia-Pacific. Asian security has become one of the most significant components of international security politics. Traditionally, there are two analytical approaches in the study of Asian security. One derives from the school of area studies, emphasizing how important local knowledge, culture, politics, and norms influence security issues in Asia. The other is rooted in international relations, focusing on applying general IR theories, such as realism, liberalism, and constructivism, to the study of security relations among states in Asia. While the debate between these two approaches is still ongoing, many scholars have tried to bridge the gap between them in studying Asian security politics.

The edited volume Security Politics in the Asia-Pacific by the prominent scholar William T. Tow is a successful attempt to marry the merits of area studies and international relations in studying the dynamics of Asian security. Using the levels of analysis approach, Tow and his collaborators suggest an innovative analytical framework, the regional-global nexus, in order to understand the interactions between Asian security at the regional level and international security at the global level.

The book starts with an excellent overview of the state of the study of Asian security. Tow critically reviews five major books on the subject, which suggest four distinctive but closely related approaches in the study of Asian security, including “region-centric,” “IR-globalism,” “analytical eclecticism,” and “regional security complex.” Tow points out that despite the merits of these extant works, three questions remain: 1) the lack of “enforceable universal norms and institutions that command consensus for shaping a more harmonious and enduring global order” (p. 12); 2) no consensus over “the type of Asian security order that will be responsible for helping to shape global structures” (p. 13); and 3) the need for further research on “the linkages between traditional levels of security analysis (state-centric, regional, and global) and emerging transregional security issues” (p. 14).

The rest of the book is divided into three sections. The first part assesses the theoretical concept of the global-regional security nexus (Brian Job) and applies this concept to three key security issues in the Asia Pacific: multilateralism (Michael Wesley), U.S. hegemony (Michael Mastanduno), and China's rise (Hugh White and Brendan Taylor). The second section explores how the security nexus concept can be applied to the Asian security order through both material and ideational channels. In particular, Evelyn Goh explores how the United States as a hegemon shapes a hierarchic, but relatively stable, regional order in Asia. William Case examines how political liberalization at the national level influences the security outcomes across the regional-global nexus. Sorpong Peou's chapter links the regional-global nexus question to East Asian security community building. Akiko Fukushima and William Tow's chapter examines how the human security concept is perceived, assessed, and developed in regional security and institutional building in the Asia Pacific. John Ravenhill assesses the pacifying effects of economic interdependence on regional security.

The last section of the book examines the major security issues in the Asia-Pacific through the regional-global nexus framework. These security issues stem from the regional level, but their influences spread widely to international security at the global level. These include the terrorism issue in Southeast Asia (Greg Fealy and Carlyle Thayer), the nuclear proliferation issue in North Korea and South Asia (Hrianne Hanson and Rajesh Rajagopalan), the maritime and energy security issue in the Asia-Pacific (Sam Bateman), the environmental governance issue (Aynsley Kellow), and the regional and global politics of controlling pandemics in the region (Christian Enemark). Amitav Acharya concludes the book by emphasizing the importance of regional effects of security issues on the global level.

This book makes three major contributions to the study of Asian security politics. First, Tow and his collaborators not only point out the problems of studying Asian security in the age of globalization but also suggest a feasible analytical framework to address these problems. The regional-global nexus approach is not the first attempt to link regional dynamics to the global context. As Tow points out (p. 11), the previous studies by David Lake and Patrick Morgan (Regional Orders: Building Security in a New World, 1997) and Barry Buzan and Ole Wæver (Regions and Powers, 2003) have drawn particular attention to the regional-global security interrelationship. Building on this extant scholarship, Tow and his colleagues try to advance the study of the regional-global nexus along two dimensions. On the one hand, this book clarifies the mutual influence between the regional level and the global level in framing the security issues in the Asia-Pacific. On the other hand, it emphasizes how nonmaterial local/regional factors, such as regional norms, local ideas, and indigenous institutions, affect the Asian security order in the globalized world.

Second, the book investigates a wide range of key security issues in the region, including traditional security topics, such as power balancing and U.S. hegemony and nuclear proliferation, as well as various nontraditional security concerns, such as maritime security, human security, and climate change. Although scholars may disagree with some particular analyses, they will find the book, as a whole, invaluable in furthering their understanding of Asian security politics and the interactions between Asian security and global issues. Since all of these topics are timely and policy relevant, the policy community will also find the chapters interesting and inspiring.

Third, this book is not only rich in empirics but also diverse in theoretical perspectives. Although the contributors have an analytical consensus to emphasize the importance of the regional-global nexus, they apply different theoretical frameworks to their empirical analyses. Consequently, their arguments are diverse in perspective, but complementary in essence. For example, on the question of Asian regional order and U.S. hegemony, there are at least three different views in the book. While Mastanduno is pessimistic about U.S. strategy in Asia and asserts that the United States would like to “muddle along reactively” toward Asia in the future (p. 81), Goh optimistically argues that the regional hierarchy structured by U.S. hegemony is relatively stable in Asia. In addition, Peou suggests that U.S. hegemony is a negative factor in building an East Asian security community.

The book has one minor unsolved problem, however, which deserves further research in the future. The concept of regional-global nexus is still unclear theoretically. Although Brian Job unpacked the concept of regional-global nexus through the levels of analysis framework, he admitted that “specification of the regional-global security nexus in a precise and static representation, in principle, is not possible” (p. 32). The book sets up a broad theoretical framework, which includes both material and nonmaterial forces across the regional and global levels that influence Asian security politics. Although the richness of the regional-global nexus framework is admirable, more rigorous theoretical and conceptual studies along the directions laid out here are needed in the future.

In sum, William Tow has edited an excellent, comprehensive, and innovative work on the study of Asian security politics. It should be read by scholars from both area studies and IR who are interested in the dynamics of Asian security.