The Asian nuclear order is increasingly coloured by complexity and instability. It’s an order that’s still largely shaped by subregional drivers, national priorities and a code of voluntary restraint rather than by any region-wide ‘managed system’. But geopolitical and technological shifts are pulling the order in new directions.

The paper considers four case studies—the US–China relationship, the South Asian nuclear dynamic, the North Korean nuclear program and the challenges confronting US extended nuclear assurance in Asia and implications for Australia.