There is general agreement among those concerned with international relations and strategy that for the next fifteen years Asia is more likely to be an area of tension and conflict involving major powers than any other part of the world, now that detente has stabilised the situation in Europe. There is further agreement that China and growing nationalism among the Asian societies will be the foci around which tension and conflict are likely to build up. There have been a number of studies speculating about the future of Asia in the seventies and most of them relate to ways and means of counteracting and containing an expansionist Chinese power.