The Asia-Pacific Security Lexicon (Upated 2nd Edition)

TRUST-BUILDING MEASURES

245 TRUST-BUILDING MEASURES Refers to a concept closely related to the family of confidence- and security-building measures. While TBMs is not a new term — in fact it was used as long ago as the Camp David pr ocess in the Middle East — some scholars have suggested they of fer a “more indigenous” Asia-Pacific alternative to confidence-building measures (CBMs) or confidence- and security-building measur es (CSBMs).1 Trust-building measures were the subject of the first ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) inter-sessional seminar held in Canberra in November 1994. The term has been used extensively by Paul Dibb, Head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (SDSC) at the Australian National University, and chair of the 1994 meeting. According to Dibb, “dialogue and political trust are necessary preconditions for developing specific security measur es” in the Asia-Pacific.2 His understanding of TBMs includes both military and non-military measures designed to promote that trust. Dibb argues that “multilateral security dialogue is itself the first and perhaps most important regional trust-building measure.”3 Dibb suggests that specific TBMs discussed by the ARF and the ARF-Senior Officials Meetings (SOMs) fall into two gr oups: those that involve information-sharing; and those that r equire specific measures of constraint.4 Of these two types, he gr oups 02 A_Pac Security Lexicon 9/28/07, 2:49 PM 245 246 TRUST-BUILDING MEASURES TBMs into three baskets. Measures in Basket 1 include exchanges of strategic perceptions; military-to-military contacts; observers at military exercises (on a voluntary basis); and participation in the United Nations Conventional Arms Register. These measur es should be “relatively easy” to get agreement on. Basket 2 measures include exploration of a regional arms register; the establishment of a regional security studies centr e; the publication of Defence White Papers; and the creation of maritime information databases. Dibb labels these as a “little less easy” and says they would need to be implemented in the medium term. Basket 3 measur es, the most difficult to implement, include notification of major military exercises and maritime surveillance cooperation.5 Like CBMs and CSBMs, tr ust-building measures have the broad objective of pr omoting confidence, r educing uncertainty, misperception, and suspicion in the r egion and lowering the chances of armed conflict occurring. According to some proponents, they differ from confidence-building measures in the way TBMs tend to place greater emphasis on a gradual or incr emental approach to building political tr ust between states rather than spectacular breakthroughs.6 Others claim they are less formal and more flexible than CBMs and ar e based upon consensus. W illiam Tow and Douglas Stuart add that TBMs ar e often “built on personal political contacts and relationships”.7 Such differences, however, have been exaggerated. It is difficult to see how TBMs offer much in the way of an “indigenous” alternative to the CBMs. Use of the term in the Middle East long pre-dates its use in Asia. Even the terminology used by proponents of TBMs, such as Dibb’s “baskets of measur es” emulates the language of the Helsinki Pr ocess. A Chinese perspective pr esented at a seminar on CanadaChina relations in 1997 dr ew a subtle distinction between the terms trust and confidence. It noted that “in most security writings by Western scholars, the word ‘trust’ is used interchangeably with ‘confidence’…. In Chinese, xinren and xinlai correspond roughly to ‘confidence’ and ‘trust’ respectively and have different shades of meaning. Xinlai implies that someone is not only believable but also dependable. Wher eas xinren emphasizes more on the believability of someone or something.” The participant went on to say, “ ‘Confidence’ and ‘tr ust’ also imply dif ferent degrees of belief. ‘Confidence’ is the accumulating process towards the final trust. While ‘confidence’ is mor e procedural and with mor e psychological assurance, ‘tr ust’ is mor e conclusive with mor e assured action.”8 02 A_Pac Security Lexicon 9/28/07, 2:49 PM 246 247 TRUST-BUILDING MEASURES Notes 1 In his foreword to an Australian paper proposing TBMs, Gareth Evans claims that “as Foreign Minister ofAustralia for the past six years, I have been a str ong proponent of the need for preventive diplomacy and trust-building measures. At the outset, I r ecognized that Cold W ar language and concepts wer e not appropriate to the entirely different political, cultural...