Robert Ayson is the author of Thomas Schelling and the Nuclear Age and is a senior fellow at the Australian National University's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre. Desmond Ball is the author of Death in Balibo and the coauthor of Breaking the Codes. He is a professor at the Australian National University's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre.

Unlocking the major strategic themes and security challenges of the early 21st century, this book provides the analytical frameworks needed to make sense of this complex but exciting strategic universe. Offering a unique mix of global strategic thinking and Asia-Pacific security analysis, it provides a comprehensive and authoritative introduction to the dynamic security developments in the region, around which much global strategy is based. Vital questions facing the international community are addressed, including why governments and groups still use armed force, how much warfare has changed in the information age, why countries should be concerned about nontraditional security challenges such as water shortages and the spread of infectious disease, whether a great clash between the United States and China is imminent, the prospects for peace on the Korean peninsula and between India and Pakistan, and what security means for Pacific Island countries, Australia, and New Zealand.