Non-Traditional Security in Asia: Issues, Challenges and Framework for Action

11. Conclusion

290 11 ConClusion Mely Caballero-Anthony and Alistair D.B. Cook Throughout this book, the contributors have systematically engaged with nine non-traditional security (NTS) threats that face Asian states and societies today. These NTS challenges both in new and ongoing scenarios highlight the strengths and weaknesses of international, national and local responses to them. The different crises under investigation that confronted Asia point to a number of key points and lessons learnt which are hopefully utilized by the policy-making community to mitigate the impact of many of these NTS threats in the immediate future, and also provide evidence to inform longer term debates. As the region continues to grapple with a host of NTS challenges, be it another outbreak of an infectious disease, natural disasters or the outbreak of internal conflicts, there is no longer any excuse for a lack of preparedness. Within the ASEAN and ASEAN Plus Three frameworks, there are already enough initiatives to enhance regional cooperation in pandemic preparedness and disaster relief. It is time to put more effort into implementing many of these plans and critical to this is the political will by governments to put in place systems and resources to translate many of these plans into actionable deeds. Whether the region faces challenges in health or disaster preparedness, it is evident that working with other partners, governments, NGOs, civil society and other stakeholders is important. Many of these NTS issues do not only have transnational reach but have also become more complex. Thus, conventional responses to address many of these issues are no longer adequate. While inter-agency coordination is indeed important to deal Conclusion 291 with complex emergencies within a national domain, more often than not, government resources are limited. In dealing with human insecurities brought on by climate change, the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, an economic downturn, natural disasters and disease outbreaks, there is an increasing realization that global and regional institutions should work closely with national and local partners. This is to ensure that decisions are made at the most appropriate level and the necessary human and financial resources are channelled effectively. Many of the issues raised in this edited collection illustrate that what happens in one area of the world, can have devastating effects in another part of the world. In dealing with NTS issues, the international community needs to re-examine its governance approach particularly in the areas of health, food, water, climate change and natural disasters, internal conflict, forced migration, energy, transnational crime, and cyber security. The picture that has emerged so far is a global community that is mostly reactive, and oftentimes divided in how to deal with NTS challenges. The latter is clearly illustrated in the poor progress in negotiations for a post-Kyoto protocol to deal with climate change. What these NTS challenges have highlighted is that there are many strands of global governance to address these issues yet they lack a golden thread to weave it together into a coherent and coordinated whole. Against the emergence of NTS challenges which are complex and multifaceted, there should be renewed interest in working across, and between, the different level of governance to produce the most informed and flexible policies in order to adapt to ever-changing circumstances. Through this book, there is an investigation into nine key NonTraditional Security threats to states and societies to introduce the reader to practical examples of current and evolving areas of Non-Traditional Security in Asia. In the second chapter an investigation into how the current system of global health governance evolved and how states and societies in the region respond to HIV/AIDS and SARS. The third and fourth chapters addressed food and water security and investigated the responses to the challenges of access, poverty and displacement of people across Asia when considering food and water security, particularly the impacts that the transnational and geostrategic dynamic surrounding the politics of water can have on states and societies. Through providing nine case studies of non-traditional security challenges this edited collection provided an introduction to the study of non-traditional security but also included the contemporary NTS challenges that face states and societies in Asia, how and why they respond in particular ways. 292 Non-Traditional Security in Asia The fifth chapter undertook an analysis of current government responses to natural disasters, and provided an assessment of the levels of preparedness in dealing...