Asian Security Reassessed

1. The Evolution of Security Thinking: An Overview

The Evolution of Security Thinking: An Overview 3 Chapter One The Evolution of Security Thinking: An Overview Stephen Hoadley INTRODUCTION Few topics can be more important to more people than security, not least in Asia. Unfortunately for those who live there, Asia has been one of the world’s most belligerent regions since the end of World War II. Of the approximately two hundred armed conflicts registered between 1945 and the present, nearly one-third took place in Asia. Two of the deadliest among them were fought in Asia. More than three million people died in the Korean War (1950–53) and over two million in the Vietnam War (1965–73). The Indochina death toll would reach three million if we add the victims of the first Indochina War (1946–54) and the Cambodian conflict (1979–91).1 Great power rivalry, arms races, communist insurgencies, ethnic rebellions, genocide, massive refugee flows, widespread human rights violations, terrorism, banditry and piracy have added to the apprehensions over Asia’s security. The end of the Cold War has not defused many of these conflicts in Asia as it has those in other parts of the world such as Europe. Even worse, new threats have emerged to frustrate the efforts of Asian 01 Asian Security Ch 1.pm65 6/12/06, 2:36 PM 3 4 Stephen Hoadley governments and international organizations to create a peaceful security environment in the region. The nature of these threats has been aptly summarized by the 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review of the United States Department of Defense. The report describes Asia as a region containing: a volatile mix of rising and declining regional powers. The governments of some of these states are vulnerable to overthrow by radical or extremist internal political forces. Many of these states field large militaries and possess the potential to develop or acquire weapons of mass destruction.2 In a globalized world the consequences of these conflicts may easily spill over into other world regions. Asia’s security problems have thus become a prime focus for study by policymakers, scholars of international relations and the media, both inside and outside the region.This volume contributes to this policy-relevant study. It seeks to assess the changes in the Asian security environment since the end of the Cold War and the shifts in the perceptions and strategies of managing the threats in the region. GROWING URGENCY OF SECURITY STUDIES The subject of this book has gained additional urgency for at least three reasons. First, since the end of the Cold War in 1990 our understanding of the nature of security itself has been changing rapidly. Some scholars perceive a paradigm shift while others are more comfortable devising ways to encompass new perceptions within a familiar realist framework, and debate between the two camps is lively. What is evident is that the security policy community is rethinking security, not taking the traditional assumptions of the Westphalia system for granted. Second, the intensification of globalization and the appearance of its malignancies in the form of the Asian financial crisis of 1997/98 have reminded us of the importance of economic security. Manifestly, economic security has implications for political security and ultimately for international security, as the popular disturbances that led to Indonesian President Suharto’s resignation and the surrender of East Timor to United Nations tutelage seem to show. Third, the terrorist attack against the United States on 11 September 2001, and subsequently against Asian targets, most notably in Bali and the Philippines, and the launching by Asian governments of counter-terrorism campaigns, have raised worries about terrorism to the 01 Asian Security Ch 1.pm65 6/12/06, 2:36 PM 4 The Evolution of Security Thinking: An Overview 5 top of the agenda. Not only are bombers of concern but also their confederates and supporting organizations, many of which are more properly termed criminal gangs or secessionist movements. These are just three events of many that have signalled the changing nature of security and attracted efforts to meet threats to it. There are others, including the worsening of atmospheric pollution seen most dramatically in the annual “haze” blankets of insular Southeast Asia, the exhaustion of natural resources, most notably land, trees and potable water, the displacement of people from their homes on a growing scale by environmental despoliation, economic hardship, and armed conflict, and the surging of illegal migrants from one country to...