• Doubts about US will and commitment to stay in SEA; more anti- American demonstrations notably in the Philippines too
• In the mean time, rise of China especially with its launch of economic
reforms and opening to the outside world under Deng Xiaoping
China became even more important with the demise of the Soviet
Union and the end of the cold war starting the early 1990s
• It remains to be noted that the US became the only super-power by
default in what is called the post-cold war period
• This is especially true in security , the focus of this lecture, in SEA, or
for that matter, the Asia-Pacific