This book makes a case for a reorientation of the nuclear nonproliferation regime, posing an alternative conceptualization of nuclear order centered on the regional level. It draws on an array of theoretical tools from the literatures on regionalism, security governance, and international institutions, developing a framework that analyzes the conditions that would allow for more robust regional nuclear cooperation. These include the presence of (1) institutional architecture, (2) political, economic, and military relations among states, and (3) fundamental regional awareness and identity. Wan then deploys this theoretical approach to several case studies, including Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, focusing on two interrelated questions. First, what is the viability of a stronger regional nuclear order in the region? Second, what form would such an order most likely take? In the process, the book identifies the magnitude and character of the proliferation challenge specific to each region. It also considers the existing character of nuclear cooperation at the regional level. Wan presents the historical development of regional nuclear order in Latin America as a model for the rest of the world. In this area, regional institutions ranging from organizations to dialogues to ad hoc arrangements gradually became more involved across economic, environmental, and human security domains, providing the foundation for multilateral cooperation in the nuclear arena. As his analysis shows, in light of the contemporary proliferation landscape, the establishment and strengthening of such regional nuclear orders is essential.

Although the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) are popular as tools for convenient exchange of information, it is not easy to utilise the Internet for time-critical applications such as on-line remote diagnosis in telemedicine. It is a wish of the United Nations to bring e-health to every corner of the world via the Internet. This is easier said than done because the sheer size of the Internet implies unpredictable faults of all kinds. These faults are physically translated into communication and computation delays. Since these faults and delays have many contributing factors that can change suddenly, it is impractical to monitor them all for the sake of fault tolerance. For this reason the new concept of interpreting the channel dynamics by gauging its end-to-end behaviour has emerged. The aim is to measure the changes of the average service roundtrip time (RTT) over time and interpret the possible signs of faults from these changes. If the length of the average service RTT is suddenly increased in an exponential manner, network congestion and widespread retransmission are indicated. Then, the Internet and/or the applications running on it should invoke fault tolerance measures to prevent system breakdown and partial failures. This concept of gauging the channel dynamics to prevent system failure is generally known as Internet End-to-End Performance Measurement (IEPM). The purpose of the book is to shed light on some of the novel practical fault tolerance techniques that can help shorten the end-to-end service roundtrip (RTT) time of a logical Internet channel. As a result the Internet can be harnessed for serious time-critical applications. Several practical cases are presented to demonstrate how the effective harnessing can be achieved.