NonTraditional Security and Multilateralism in Asia Mikaela Ediger Europe and Asia January 27, 2014
Overview Introduction and definitions NTS Threats in ASEAN, APT / ARF, APEC 1. infectious diseases 2. natural disasters and climate change 3. transnational crime 4. poverty Conclusions Future trends Questions
Nontraditional security (NTS)...challenges to the survival and wellbeing of people and states that arise primarily out of nonmilitary sources Nontraditional security (NTS) threats tend to be... transnational (neither purely domestic nor purely interstate unpredictable and difficult to prevent transmitted rapidly can threaten not only state sovereignty or territory, but peoples security within the state
Second Generation or New Regionalism...expanded and multidimensional forms of interstate cooperation and integration, covering a wide range of economic, political, security, and cultural areas deeper economic integration with political elements multilevel governance decentralization within states strong international legal frameworks cooperation along many dimensions 2nd generation regionalism can emerge as a response to globalization crises Ex. 1997 Financial Crisis > 1998 APT formalizes relations with China, Japan, and South Korea > Chiang Mai Initiative
NTS and Multilateralism How has responding to nontraditional security threats encouraged regional multilateralism in Asia? encourage member states commitment to regional frameworks encourage the adoption of more rulesbased regimes within regional organizations This makes for more effective collaboration with outside organizations and coordination of security responses (second generation regionalism)
Infectious Diseases Regional preparation accelerated after SARS outbreak ASEAN: Task Force 2004 APT: Emerging Diseases Program, Regional Framework for Control and Eradication of Avian Influenza EAS: Declaration on Avian Influenza Prevention, Control, and Response APEC: US establishes Regional Emerging Diseases Intervention Center, regional meetings to discuss avian
Infectious Diseases Problems not fully implemented as of 2007 lack of resources allocated to public health at domestic level need to improve poor state of health infrastructure in lessdeveloped countries and (initiatives at the regional level can only go so far) need comprehensive strategy, with so many actors involved there may be gaps
Natural Disasters ASEAN APEC/ ARF members contributed resources to victims of 2004 tsunami mobilized support from external agencies like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank preparedness initiatives geared towards establishing better early warning system simulation exercises to improve mobilization of equipment to provide aid
Natural Disasters Problems: speed of response improvements to national capacity and national response plans still needed ASEAN should expand its exercises to include countries outside ASEAN coordinating all the mechanisms in place with various actors, at ASEAN ARF and APEC level is difficult
Climate Change threatens to both state security and human security most of the world s population lives near coasts and many cities will be vulnerable to rising sea levels makes natural disasters more frequent and unpredictable
Climate Change Andrew DeWit: more involvement of militaries, especially the American military, in humanitarian and disaster relief Operation Tomodachi often the military has the best resources to undertake relief operations of the scale that worsening natural disasters demand NGOs, governments and militaries need to develop institutional connections to facilitate military involvement in climate change crises using the resources of hard security conflict for soft security collaboration
Transnational Crime Challenges: corruption, requires extensive sharing of information ASEAN: regular meeting between members nations ministries of home affairs, as well as national chiefs of police (+ China) Joint Declaration on Cooperation against transnational crime and drugs 2002 (+ China) ACCORD institutional framework against drug trafficking (+ U.S.) Declaration on Joint Action to Counter Terrorism 2001 APT: meeting on Transnational Crime in 2004; a number of smaller institutions established against transnational crime and terrorism ARF also holds meetings on counterterrorism
Transnational Crime Piracy in the Malacca Strait ASEAN s Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore made a trilateral arrangement for controlling coordinated patrols, and Thailand, the Philippines, and Japan have joined the group s activities example of how a regional institution can facilitate a focused minilateral response for a problem affecting some of its members
Poverty 1997 Financial Crisis reveals inequality can cause conflict and instability Very little provision for social safety nets Challenge: addressing the development divide within ASEAN ASEAN Social Charter has been suggested to regulate labour standards
Poverty APT: Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI) liquidity support facility $75 billion reserve pool has become increasingly institutionalized with economic surveillance measures to ensure early response mitigates against the threat of another financial crisis
Conclusions Ad hoc measures: creeping institutionalism Minilaterals geared towards specific threats within regional institutions (ASEAN and APT) are more effective than the more inclusive APEC and ARF Surveillance, information sharing, and disaster relief efforts are going beyond consensus building
Future trends development of norms encourages more rulesbased frameworks (ex. ASEAN Charter) increased intrusiveness on state sovereignty may be tolerated in areas such as transnational crime duplication may become a problem
Future trends inclusiveness is important there should be a way for extraregional powers to get involved more robust integration on nontraditional security will require a level of elite consensus on values and norms tension between conservatism and noninterference vs. effectively responding to problems that go beyond state borders
Questions Does NTS collaboration give rise to creeping institutionalization, or just a lot of small ad hoc responses? Will future crises result in more integration? Could tensions between the Asian vs inclusive institutions be a positive thing for addressing NTS threats (or will this lead to inefficiency)?
Thanks for listening!
Sources Adler, Emanuel and Michael Barnett. 1998. A Framework for the Study of Security Communities in Emanuel Adler and Michael Barnett eds, Security Communities. Cambridge University Press, pp.2965. CaballeroAnthony, Mely. Reshaping the Contours of the Regional Security Architecture, in Michael Green and Gill Bates (ed.) Asia s New Multilateralism: Cooperation, Competition and the Search for Community. New York, Columbia University Press, 2009, pp.306328.