non-traditional security and multilateralism in asia · pdf filenon-traditional security and...

Non-Traditional Security and

Multilateralism in AsiaMikaela Ediger

Europe and AsiaJanuary 27, 2014

Sunday, January 26, 14

Overview• Introduction and definitions

• NTS Threats in ASEAN, APT / ARF, APEC

1. infectious diseases2. natural disasters and climate change3. transnational crime4. poverty

• Conclusions

• Future trends

• Questions


Non-traditional security (NTS)

• “...challenges to the survival and well-being of people and states that arise primarily out of nonmilitary sources”

• Non-traditional 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 non-traditional security

threats encouraged regional multilateralism in Asia?

• encourage member states’ commitment to regional frameworks

• encourage the adoption of more rules-based 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 less-developed 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

- members contributed resources to victims of 2004 tsunami

- mobilized support from external agencies like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank

• APEC/ ARF

- 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 rules-based 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 extra-regional powers to get involved

• more robust integration on non-traditional 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.29-65.

• Caballero-Anthony, 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.306-328.


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